Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has been developed from the work of two prominent psychotherapists, Albert Ellis and Dr. Aron Beck in the 1980s. The base idea is that the way we interpreter the events that happen in our lives produces the feelings that we experience, which ultimately determine our behavior. In this sense it is not the events themselves that matter but the meaning we give them.

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Albert Ellis has created the acronym ABC that illustrates this idea:
 

A - Aware of an event (ex: I have an exam)

B - Belief and thought about it (ex. I am not smart enough, I will fail)

C - Consequence - feeling and behaviour (I feel stressed, I fail and feel
miserable).

 

 

The good news is that when we change the interpretation and the perception of the situation we are in, we change our feelings and behaviour and the whole experience all together.
 

So how can we do this?

The CBT practitioner uses questions to prompt the client to reflect upon and re-evaluate his own thinking. The practitioner helps the client identify his dysfunctional beliefs and thinking processes such as generalisations, false assumptions, distortions, catastrophic or dichotomous thinking, rigidity, learned helplessness, etc.
 

The realisations the client makes result in shifts of thinking and change in beliefs. CBT encourages the individual to become more flexible and to adapt new ways of thinking that are beneficial for him. The coping skills and strategies the client develops become part of his inner resources that he can always use to keep a healthy state of mind. The sessions focus on today, tomorrow and the future with little time spent on previous life experiences.