Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at WEC

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT is a short-term, problem-focused form of behavioral treatment that helps people see the connection between beliefs, thoughts, and feelings, and free them from unhelpful patterns of behavior. This is an evidenced based treatment that is meant to help you .

CBT is grounded in the belief that it is a person’s perception of events – rather than the events themselves – that determines how they will feel and act in response.

CBT can help with:

  • Depression

  • Anxiety

  • Panic attacks

  • Phobias

  • Obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD)

  • Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

  • Substance dependency

  • Persistent pain

  • Disordered eating

  • Sexual issues

  • Anger management issues

Most people with clearly defined behavioral and emotional concerns tend to reap the benefits of CBT. If any of the above issues resonate with you, we encourage you to try cognitive behavioral therapy.

With CBT, you’ll be able to adjust the thoughts that directly influence your emotions and behavior. This adjustment process is referred to as cognitive reconstructing, which happens through different CBT techniques.

Some CBT techniques are:

  • Journalling

  • Challenging beliefs

  • Relaxation

  • Meditation

  • Mindfulness

  • Reframing thoughts in relation to our emotions

  • Social, physical, and thinking exercises

CBT Can Help Treat Anxiety, Depression, Stress, Negative Thoughts & a Variety of Other Issues

This therapy is problem-focused and action-oriented, helping you manage stress and anxiety, resolve conflict, and reshape negative or inaccurate thoughts and perceptions that often lead to fear, anger, anxiety, and depression.

All of us hold long-standing beliefs about ourselves and others. Sometimes these beliefs are not accurate and negatively affect our emotions and behaviors; other time, the belief may have been helpful but no longer serves us in a healthy way. We’ll help you learn to identify these damaging thoughts and to recognize destructive or hurtful patterns of behavior so you can change them.

Typically, CBT is considered a short-term therapy option, lasting between 10 and 20 sessions. CBT is applied in individual therapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is much more than sitting and talking about whatever comes to mind during a session. CBT sessions are structured to ensure that the therapist and the person in treatment are focused on the different goals of each session, which in turn ensures that each and every session is productive. CBT utilizes homework assignments and you will be assigned homework on a regular basis.

According to the APA:

CBT is based on several core principles, including:

  1. Psychological problems are based, in part, on faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking.

  2. Psychological problems are based, in part, on learned patterns of unhelpful behavior.

  3. People suffering from psychological problems can learn better ways of coping with them, thereby relieving their symptoms and becoming more effective in their lives.

CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns. These strategies might include:

  • Learning to recognize one’s distortions in thinking that are creating problems, and then to reevaluate them in light of reality.

  • Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others.

  • Using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations.

  • Learning to develop a greater sense of confidence is one’s own abilities.

CBT treatment also usually involves efforts to change behavioral patterns. These strategies might include:

  • Facing one’s fears instead of avoiding them.

  • Using role playing to prepare for potentially problematic interactions with others.

  • Learning to calm one’s mind and relax one’s body.

 

If you’d like to schedule an appointment or get any of your questions answered, please call our office at (352) 240-4978  or send us an email at wellnessfla@gmail.com.

We service all of Marion and Alachua County, including Gainesville, Alachua, High Springs, Newberry, Hawthorne, Micanopy, Archer, Waldo, and La Crosse. We also service all of Florida via telehealth.