Counseling in Chesterfield, VA—Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Thoughts have significant power in people’s lives. All too often, people cannot adjust their circumstances, but they can always adjust their own thinking.
CBT shows people how to adjust their thinking—making substantial life changes by first changing their perspective on life. Cognitive behavioral therapy may allow…
- Clients and therapists to establish a mutual-working relationship. While therapists understand cognitive distortions and healthy thinking, clients are experts on their own thought patterns. Together, clients and therapists work together for meaningful change.
- Clients to discover how much power they have to control their own thoughts, feelings, and actions.
- Clients to work through a practical challenge—giving them real-life experience with adjusting their own thinking.
- Clients to build cognitive and emotional skills that they can use for the rest of their lives.
The staff at Thriveworks Chesterfield specializes in CBT, and our therapists and counselors have helped many clients make substantial changes in their lives by first adjusting their thinking.
Call or go online to begin working with one of our CBT therapists today.
Examples of Cognitive Distortions
What people think about a situation directly affects their response. Untrue, negative thoughts often lead to unhelpful actions that can sabotage an individual’s best interest. To change these cognitive distortions to more positive, true thoughts, people must first learn to recognize them. A handful of cognitive distortions are the most common, so becoming familiar with these may allow people to more easily recognize them in their own lives. Examples include…
- Emotional reasoning cannot distinguish between an internal feeling and an external reality. For example, many spouses of addicts feel guilty for their loved one’s compulsive behaviors even though they are in no way responsible for another’s choice. The feeling of guilt does not automatically correlate to the reality of guilt.
- Filtering sees life through a lens that separates out anything positive or beneficial. It consigns the good to a category of unimportant. People, therefore, only see the negative.
- Catastrophizing anticipates the worst possible outcome for every situation.
- The fallacy of fairness uses an arbitrary measure to compare and contrast one’s life with another’s instead of measuring one’s own life for its unique merits.
- Blaming seeks to find responsibility and fault in every situation, even when there is none or when doing so is not beneficial. People become obsessed with blame.
- Polarized or “black and white” thinking does not allow for grey or shades. It sees life as all-or-nothing. Everything is fantastic or terrible. People are good or evil. There is no in-between.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: How Does It Work?
The goal of CBT is to replace cognitive distortions with more positive thought patterns. Within their therapy sessions, clients may:
- Learn the difference between emotions and thoughts. People may experience feelings and thinking as the same, but learning the difference is key to being able to exert more control over them.
- Increase their own awareness of thoughts and feelings. CBT especially focuses on how an individual’s emotions and thoughts influence each other and influence their actions. Counselors may assign clients homework that includes self-reflection exercises to increase their self-awareness.
- Allow people to assess their thoughts and feelings from a critical distance. This evaluation can allow people to recognize potential cognitive distortions.
- Practice cognitive and emotional skills that will help people adjust their thinking before cognitive distortions escalate to actions.
Appointments for CBT at Thriveworks Chesterfield
One of the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy is that it can be utilized in a wide array of circumstances that people face. Counselors have used CBT to treat…
- Anxiety
- Mood swings
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Self-destructive habits
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Drug and/or alcohol addiction
- Child and adolescent issues
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Anger management
- Self-mutilation
- General health issues
- Relationship issues
What is happening in your life right now? Whether the particular challenge you are facing is on this list or not, consider cognitive behavioral therapy. Changing your perspective often leads to significant and important life changes.
If you are ready to meet with a therapist, Thriveworks Chesterfield has appointments available for CBT. When you call our office, one of our scheduling specialists will answer and help you make an appointment.
We also work with many insurance companies and offer evening and weekend sessions. Call Thriveworks Chesterfield today for an appointment, or book online to get started receiving CBT.
