Posted by Dinah on June 7, 2003, at 11:36:27
In reply to Re: Changing Therapists - What type of therapy??, posted by dissociative jane on June 7, 2003, at 10:50:44
Here's a website that can explain it better than I can.
http://www.cognitive-behavior-therapy.org/basics.html
In it is a link to an example of treatment for social phobia.
I doubt the therapy you're doing is CBT. It sounds more like traditional therapy. CBT stays very much in the present moment. It only looks backwards to identify behavior patterns and ways of thinking that you have that have proved troublesome to you. It assumes that whatever the root causes of your problems, what really matters is what you do now about them. There's a lot of homework where you identify your thoughts and behaviors in certain situations. An example would be if if you run into a traffic jam in the morning and think "Oh great, now I'm going to be late and lose my job. My whole day is ruined." Cognitive therapy would have you stop those automatic thoughts and replace them with more helpful thoughts.
From your posting name, I'm assuming dissociation is a problem for you. CBT therapy may be focussed first on teaching you to stay grounded, to teach you mindfulness so that you don't "go away". Then when you're staying in the moment and able to identify your thoughts, it might work on some automatic thoughts that are causing you anxiety and making you want to dissociate. There might be very little emphasis on what was the historical basis for the automatic thoughts.
My therapist is primarily CBT in orientation, although we do interpersonal therapy as well. Yesterday, I was upset about financial woes, and he was trying to keep me in the present and point out my distorted thinking. A tight budget did not mean the end of the world, there are other ways of enjoying yourself that don't involve money. I was catastrophizing, and fortune telling, and all sorts of cognitive distorting. I'm sure he's correct and one day I might even want to hear it. Yesterday I wanted to shove his oh so reasonable attitude down his throat. :)
poster:Dinah
thread:230679
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030529/msgs/232151.html