What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

How do we know it helps?

Most people think that something happens, and you have an emotion about what happened. But there is a middle step.

That middle step sometimes happens so fast, we aren’t even aware of it.  It’s like we see the tail of the comet (the EMOTION), but don’t see the comet itself (the SELF TALK).  And sometimes, the things we say to ourselves in that middle step is something we would never say to a friend.  It hurts us, it makes us feel bad, and then we begin to believe that other people don’t like us, that we are unlovable, or that we are trapped.

Our job is to help you identify what is happening in that middle step, and to look at it in the light of day, and evaluate whether what you were saying to yourself at that point is true or not.

If it’s true, we will help you work on a plan for handling the situation.

If it’s NOT true, we will help you learn to change those thoughts. 

We do not practice “positive thinking”, there is no positive way to look at some situations, like the death of a loved one.  But there is a more realistic way of thinking, and we can help you with that.

At CBTA, we are the tour guides.  We don’t tell you where your journey should take you, we will work with you on how to get there.