Therapists who are trained in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) find value in teaching their clients how to cope with automatic negative thoughts (ANTs). ANTs can be catalysts for negative behavior like lashing out at others and self-destructive habits. They also cause negative emotions and hurt feelings that may not necessarily fit the situation that caused the […]
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Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a therapeutic approach that is used for different types of mental health challenges. It can help a client who is struggling with different experiences, including a depressed mood, anxiety, ruminating thoughts, low self-esteem, poor impulse control, anger management issues, and more. CBT is an effective form of treatment that can […]
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Children find it hard to cope with things they do not understand. There are many people, places, and things in the world that scare children, and when children are afraid they feel lost, alone, and vulnerable. A fearful child will have a hard time developing the confidence they need to face their fears, but helping […]
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Sometimes we get caught up in the day and forget to focus on what we are feeling. This can cause us to miss important signs of our changing mood, which can affect our ability to use healthy coping skills. When we are struggling with understanding our mood patterns it helps a great deal to have […]
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Anticipatory anxiety is a struggle for many people. It is a type of anxiety that occurs when thinking about something that will be happening or may happen in the future. A person who is struggling with anticipatory anxiety may find themselves in thinking patterns like catastrophizing or imagining the worst-case scenario. When it comes to […]
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After learning what cognitive behavioral therapy is, how it works, and how components like cognitive distortions, automatic negative thoughts, core beliefs, emotions, and behavior all contribute to our perceptions, it is important to learn how to challenge negative thoughts and cognitive distortions. A great tool to learn how to challenge cognitive distortions is the automatic […]
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In cognitive behavioral therapy, a therapist will often work with their client to identify their cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are patterns in thinking that typically make someone think in the negative and have negative expectations. This can be detrimental to the client for many reasons, the biggest being it holds them back from growing mentally […]
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Core beliefs are the strong and withstanding beliefs that a person has about themselves and how they relate to others, the world, and their future. These beliefs are based on what a person has learned through life experiences and begin being formed during childhood. The way a person sees each aspect of their life is […]
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Thoughts can be upsetting sometimes, but the thoughts that upset us are not always healthy or realistic. We often have thoughts in reaction to situations that we may not fully understand or are interpreted through our feelings. Upsetting thoughts can affect how we feel about ourselves, our behaviors, and our emotions, so it is important […]
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A depressed mood can affect most areas of a person’s life. Sometimes depression is chronic or consistent, and sometimes it can come and go in waves. Depression can impact how a person can cope with life stressors, which is why it is important to know how to handle it in the moment. A person does […]
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Jumping to conclusions can have a major effect on how a person relates to others and feels about themselves. When people jump to conclusions, they draw conclusions based on part of the whole picture they see. This causes them to assume things that may not be true and can prevent them from handling a situation […]
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Learning about cognitive distortions can be helpful for a person in therapy. A cognitive distortion is a pattern of unhealthy thinking. When a person thinks through cognitive distortions, they are not able to see a situation clearly. This can impact their judgment and how they view themselves and the world around them. A cognitive distortion […]
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Between sessions, clients need to practice coping skills. Worries happen each day of a person’s life, but they should not be strong enough to consume a person. That is why it is important to remember to use coping skills each day. A great way to make sure a client remembers to use coping methods to […]
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An important skill to have when managing negative thoughts is learning how to identify cognitive distortions. A cognitive distortion is a pattern of unhealthy thinking. Identifying cognitive distortions is an important part of cognitive-behavioral therapy, which helps you learn how to challenge and rethink unhealthy thoughts. One type of cognitive distortion is called generalizing. The […]
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Emotional reasoning can be a major barrier in a client’s progress in therapy. When a client uses emotional reasoning to understand the world around them, they develop a poor self-image and distrust for people around them. Emotional reasoning can cause a client to have unrealistic expectations and misunderstand the reality of the challenging situations they […]
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Anxiety is an emotion that everyone feels sometimes. Whether a person is seeking therapy for an anxiety disorder or something that is causing them to feel anxious, it is important to understand what anxiety is and how it can affect a person. Anxiety can cause many uncomfortable symptoms. It is a different experience for everyone, […]
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Negative thoughts can have a significant impact on how we feel and how we react to challenging situations. They can cause us to act out of character, and get down on ourselves for reasons that are not fair to us. When we give in to our negative thoughts, we set ourselves up for feeling anxious, […]
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It is important to teach clients how to challenge their negative thoughts. Negative thoughts lead to negative self-talk, which can affect a client’s self-esteem. It can also affect how they relate to people around them, and have a negative effect on their ability to build relationships with others. Cognitive restructuring is a process that involves […]
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A great method of helping a client overcome their anxiety is educating them about cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are patterns of negative thinking that make the client have unrealistic expectations or perceptions of a situation. Cognitive distortions can cause a person to view the world and themselves in a negative light, which prevents them from […]
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Cognitive distortions are a major source of mental and emotional strain on a person’s day-to-day life. Everyone struggles with cognitive distortions sometimes. They are natural patterns that our brain develops to understand how the world affects us. The challenge with cognitive distortions is they warp the way we see the world and how it relates […]
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Awareness about your own cognitive distortions is an important part of therapy. It is a step toward correcting thinking errors. A cognitive distortion is a pattern in negative thoughts. It is an error in thinking that causes many challenges in a person’s life. Understanding cognitive distortions is a part of the process of cognitive behavioral […]
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Anxiety is an oppressive emotion for people to feel. People with chronic anxiety tend to suffer from cycles of anxiety, panic and avoidance. It is not uncommon for these people to not realize the cycle of anxiety they fall into, nor how the cycle affects them. In order to learn how to manage anxiety, a […]
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Rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) is a form of therapy that can be very effective in helping clients. It offers a means to gain perspective on challenging situations. REBT suggests that the way people understand situations causes them to be reactive. The concept of REBT implies that a situation is neither positive nor negative. A […]
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Phobias are a challenging struggle for clients to experience. Working with clients who are trying to overcome irrational or debilitating fears takes a great deal of time and patience. A person who is facing a phobia or fear will work hard to develop the courage to face it head on, and often need guidance and […]
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Everyone struggles with cognitive distortions. A cognitive distortion is an error in thinking. It is a pattern of thinking that is detrimental to the way clients think about challenges and behave in reaction. A cognitive distortion can cause different issues with stress management, communication, and relationships. It can also affect a client’s self-esteem, self-image, and […]
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Catastrophizing is a common issue that people face in therapy. It is a term that refers to people feeling anxious because they feel the worst will happen in a challenging situation. Catastrophizing causes people to feel a great deal of anxiety. It often causes people to act irrationally and in a way that worsens the […]
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When used properly, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a very effective form of therapy. CBT helps people work on their problem behavior by providing a means to understand their thoughts and feelings. People often react to stressors quickly, and that can prevent them from thinking things through. CBT teaches a person how to slow down […]
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Everyone faces challenges. Life is about facing challenges to find resolution and grow from the experience. A huge factor that affects a person’s ability to handle challenges while maintaining inner peace and growth is the way in which they handle their own negative thoughts. It is important to know how to counter your own negative […]
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Stress is a natural part of life. Everyone experiences stress, and everyone is affected by stress in different ways. It is important to know how to manage stress. When you do not know how to manage your own stress, you face consequences like anxiety, depression and sleep issues. The first step to learning how to […]
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Cognitive distortions (thinking errors) are a huge contributing factor to many people’s mental health issues. Cognitive distortions are erroneous patterns in thinking that lead to negative thoughts, bad feelings and poor behavior. When someone suffers from a cognitive distortion, they are not able to perceive tough situations in a healthy way. That is why it […]
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A huge part of using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients cope with their triggers is teaching them about cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are patterns of thinking errors, and they affect a person’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions to upsetting situations. It is not uncommon for a person in therapy to turn to cognitive distortions like […]
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Our thought patterns make a difference in how we interpret challenging situations. When we practice healthy thinking patterns we can control how we react to upsetting issues. When we have errors in thinking, or cognitive distortions, we can misunderstand a challenging situation and behave in a way that may not fit our character. Cognitive distortions […]
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Emotions can be challenging to understand. Sometimes they have concrete reasons for being felt, and sometimes we are not sure why we are feeling a certain way. When we feel emotions we do not understand, we can struggle to understand how to cope. People who struggle to understand how to identify and cope with their […]
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Using methods from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a great way to help children understand and take accountability for their feelings and actions. CBT helps kids understand their thoughts, feelings and behaviors, which can be instrumental in building self-esteem. It also helps with modifying problematic behaviors. Helping a child understand their thoughts, feelings and actions […]
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When teaching your clients cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT) skills, it is important to help them gain an understanding of common thinking errors and how they affect thoughts, feelings and behaviors. When a person has a pattern of negative thinking, it will skew the way they see and understand how they fit into a situation. This will […]
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Cognitive distortions, or errors in thinking, can cause a person to misinterpret situations and see themselves in a negative light. They are powerful and can have effects on a person’s sense of self-esteem, mood, and reactions to challenging situations. Teaching a client in therapy about how cognitive distortions may be impacting their mental health can […]
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Being aware of a client’s triggers is a critical component of learning how to cope with symptoms of mental health challenges. Triggers are situations that can cause a person to react in an unwanted or unhealthy way. Triggers can cause a person to struggle with unwanted thoughts, feelings, and impulses. They are especially challenging when […]
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Managing anxious thoughts can be challenging, especially without proper tools for coping. Anxious thoughts can be triggered by many things, like prolonged stress, low self-esteem, or unexpected issues. When left unmanaged, those thoughts can affect confidence, motivation, and the ability to cope with trials healthily. Clients in therapy often feel like a victim of their […]
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Children often have a hard time communicating how they feel. There could be a few different reasons for this. Whether they are afraid, frustrated, or do not understand how to express emotions, talking about feelings can be difficult for a child. An emotion that is especially challenging to express is worry. Worry comes from a […]
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The first step to managing stress is learning how to recognize stress. People who are stressed often ignore their symptoms. Some do not even know they are experiencing symptoms of stress until they are taught how to identify symptoms in therapy. Stress is a normal part of life, but ignoring its symptoms can cause long-term […]
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Coping with anxious thoughts can be a struggle for clients in therapy. Racing, ruminating, or oppressive thoughts can be difficult to manage healthily, which can cause stress for clients who do not know how to control their thoughts. Cognitive behavioral therapy offers tools for clients to learn how to manage their thoughts so they do […]
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Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has become a leading form of treatment that mental health professionals use when working with their clients. Part of the process of CBT is focusing on interaction between a client’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. A tool that is used to help explain how these three components affect a person’s mental health […]
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It is important to have a list of goals and objectives for the client and therapist to work toward when beginning a new therapeutic relationship. Setting goals creates a foundation that helps the client and therapist stay on track when helping them address their mental health needs. Goals also empower clients to stay consistent with […]
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Ruminating or negative thoughts are a common struggle for clients in therapy. Having difficulty controlling overwhelming thoughts can be frustrating for a client, as it contributes to ongoing challenges with anxiety, depression, and more. Ruminating thoughts are distracting and prevent clients from feeling comfortable and secure in their daily lives. If a client suffers from […]
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It can sometimes be a challenge for a client in therapy to balance their thoughts and feelings. Difficulty with finding clarity when feeling uncomfortable emotions is common because the two elements can tend to work against each other. Conflict between feelings and logic can cause anxiety, panic, depression, and more when not properly addressed. Helping […]
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We all know that sometimes life can get overwhelming. Stress at work, home, or from unexpected circumstances causes us to feel overwhelmed when not properly managed. It is important to know how to manage the feelings of anxiety, fatigue, and depressed mood that can come with prolonged and unmanaged stress. Because life can be so […]
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Negative thoughts can be powerful and have a big impact on a client’s mental health, especially when they are dealing with issues like anxiety, grief, and depression. Without proper tools for managing negative thoughts, a client’s process for healing may be challenging. When a client is struggling with negative thoughts, they are seeing the world […]
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When teaching a client how to use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for managing anxiety it helps a great deal to provide a visual aid. Clients who suffer from severe or chronic anxiety struggle to maintain control over anxious thoughts and resulting anxious feelings and behavior. It is important to teach clients in CBT treatment to […]
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Worrying consumes more time and energy than we may realize. It is a feeling that is often hard to shake, especially when struggling with anxiety and stress, or feeling out of control. Clients often struggle to cope with worrying, and may not even realize how severely they are affected by their worrisome thoughts. Teaching a […]
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Negative thoughts can control the way people perceive almost every aspect of their lives. Some may have negative thoughts about themselves, others, or the way of the world. Negative thoughts generate negative feelings. In turn, negative feelings contribute to harmful behavior and can worsen mood disorders. That is why it is important to know how […]
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