Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

In brief terms, Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on the client’s patterns of thought. In CBT we work together to identify thinking habits that are “maladaptive” to the client’s wellbeing, and most often are erroneous or focuses on some aspects of experience, while overlooking others. We all engage in many different “errors of thinking”, and in doing so, color how we see the world. Therapy researchers have identified many of these errors, such as:

• Catastrophizing (a habit of maximizing the importance of bad things)
• Over Generalizing (experiencing negative experiences as proof that it will always be bad)
• Black and White thinking (all Danes are mean and unwelcoming)
• Mind Reading (being certain we know what the person is thinking, or why they did what they did)
• Emotional Reasoning (when we feel something is true it seems more true, independent of reality)
• Perfectionistic Thinking (if I am not perfect, then I am no good)
• Personalization (taking things too personally, or accepting blame when it is not ours)

We all engage in these, sometimes more, sometimes less. When they become habits, they can become a central feature of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and difficult relationships. Often people have very good reasons for their negative and maladaptive habits of thinking. You may have learned these habits as ways of being safe in the world.