Orientation to Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive therapy is designed to help people become more aware of the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Perceptions of events strongly influence how we feel and act. Listed below are three key steps in cognitive therapy including: (1) becoming more aware of automatic thoughts; (2) exploring the evidence that does or does not support an automatic thought; and (3) developing more balanced realistic ways of thinking and believing.

Step 1: Cognitive Therapy helps people become more aware of the following:

Automatic thoughts · Feelings · Core beliefs · Behaviors · Physical reactions in the body and brain · The environment

Step 2: Cognitive Therapy helps people examine the accuracy of their thoughts, assumptions, and beliefs.

Thoughts are not facts. · Examine the evidence. · Question and challenge irrational beliefs. · Be a thought detective. · Don't believe everything you think. · Look for proof.

Step 3: Cognitive Therapy helps people develop more positive, realistic, and balanced ways of thinking and believing.

Increase your positive self-talk. · Reduce the ANTS (automatic negative thoughts) in your brain. · Retrain your brain. · Replace irrational beliefs with more rational ones. · Cognitive restructuring. · Changing or modifying thoughts and beliefs.