How we think about things is often how we feel about them, according to the principles of cognitive therapy. So it follows that if we change our negative thinking, we can feel better in general.
Linda Miller-deBerard runs Confidential Care Professional Counseling, based in Colleyville, Texas, and emphasizes on cognitive therapy. Here she talks about challenging our negative belief systems in therapy.
Cognitive therapy is based on the belief that we get our emotions from our thoughts and from our own self-talk. So cognitive therapy is about recognizing the negative self-talk and belief, and beginning to challenge those beliefs. To come up with something that is not only truer, but feels better.
Changing Your Emotions
When somebody can challenge his self-defeating self-talk and shift it to more rational thinking, he has the power to change his emotions.
Sometimes people are aware of their negative self-talk, and sometimes they aren’t. And when they aren’t, I believe that journaling is a critical tool to help them begin to recognize how they are really talking to themselves.
I tell them that keeping a journal is like keeping an x-ray of their thoughts. And once they have that x-ray to see where things are broken, they have something tangible to begin to challenge so they can make those thought shifts.
Cognitive therapy cannot work for everything, however. It is a little hard to apply to anger management, for example, as anger is such a quick emotion that it’s hard to catch those thoughts. It’s usually hard to apply them after the facts.
Recognize and Challenge Your Thoughts
Learning how to recognize and change those thoughts is like building a muscle; first you begin to recognize the thoughts, challenge and change them, then you need to practice until they become a part of you.
Cognitive therapy is more for depression and anxiety, which is what I work on most with individuals who come with me and use this model of therapy. It helps people overcome emotional disorders by recognizing the thoughts that cause them emotional discomfort, and then changing those thoughts.
