About Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

My primary mode of practice is rational-emotive/cognitive therapy. (Also see Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy page)

Cognitive Therapy (including Rational Emotive Therapy) is a highly effective, research driven approach that helps people to combat and overcome such difficulties as high anxiety/stress, panic attacks, depression, anger, relationship problems, phobias, worry, obsessions, compulsions, addictions (food or drugs), social anxiety, sexual problems, and low self-esteem. The course of treatment is typically short-term (approximately 10-20 sessions), and people often enjoy rapid and enduring relief from their symptoms. This therapy is similar in nature to therapies currently used in Resiliency Training for children, adolescents and adults.

Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy goes further, to help people address and break long-standing or particularly stubborn patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that arise from deep-seated beliefs, such as “I’m unlovable,” “I’m a failure,” “People don’t care about me,” “I’m not important,” “Something bad is going to happen,” “People will leave me,” “I will never get my needs met,” “I will never be good enough,” etc. Remarkable results have been achieved via the Schema-Focused approach, even for people who have previously found other therapies to be ineffective. Results cannot be guaranteed, however, compared with other types of therapeutic intervention research has shown Cognitive Therapy to be effective.

Schema focused and Rational Emotive Therapy do more than address symptoms, and often I recommend readings which emphasis the spiritual aspects of cognitive therapy as well as those that focus on symptom relief. Please check my suggested readings page:

Albert Ellis and the Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy
In 1955 Dr. Albert Ellis developed  REBT,  which is an action-oriented therapeutic approach that stimulates emotional growth by teaching people to replace their self-defeating thoughts, feelings and actions with new and more effective ones. REBT teaches individuals to be responsible for their own emotions and gives them the power to change and overcome their unhealthy behaviors that interfere with their ability to function and enjoy life.

Today the Albert Ellis Institute is a  world center of research, training, and practice of REBT, headed by its founder Dr. Albert Ellis who remains one of the most influential psychologists of our time, and has authored more than 70 books and 700 articles all designed to help people overcome destructive, self-defeating emotions and improve their lives. 

I have received both my Basic and Advanced Certificates in Cognitive and  Rational Emotive Therapy through the Albert Ellis Institute in New York City.

Albert Ellis Institute in New York City
www.rebt.org

 
What will I be learning in Cognitive (REBT)
and Schema-Focused Therapy?
1. Identify the themes and patterns in your thoughts, feelings and behavior that cause you emotional wear and tear;
2. Learn how to handle your thoughts and manage your emotions so that you feel better and cope more effectively;
3. Learn how to handle problematic situations to maximize positive outcomes and experiences;
4. Prevent maladaptive cycles of thinking, feeling and behaving from repeating over and over again;
5. Find ways to reach your goals and get your needs met rather than running up against the proverbial brick wall.

Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy
Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy is the approach developed by Jeffrey E. Young, Ph.D., who was a protégée of Dr. Aaron Beck. Prior to his founding the Cognitive Therapy Centers of NY and Connecticut, as well as the Schema Therapy Institute, Dr. Young served as the Director of Research and Training at the Center for Cognitive Therapy at U. Penn with Dr. Beck, where he trained many clinicians in the application of CBT. In working with clients, however, Dr. Young and his colleagues found a significant segment of people who came for treatment but had perplexing difficulty in benefiting from the standard approach. He discovered that these people typically had long-standing patterns or themes in thinking and feeling—and consequently in behaving or coping—that required a different means of intervention. Dr. Young’s attention turned to ways of helping patients to address and modify these deeper patterns or themes, also known as “schemas” or “lifetraps.”

The schemas (listed below) that are targeted in treatment are enduring and self-defeating patterns that typically begin early in life, get repeated and elaborated upon, cause negative/dysfunctional thoughts and feelings, and pose obstacles for accomplishing one’s goals and getting one’s needs met. Although schemas are usually developed early in life (during childhood or adolescence), they can also form later, in adulthood. These schemas are perpetuated behaviorally through the coping styles of schema maintenance, schema avoidance, and schema compensation. Dr. Young’s model centers on helping the person to break these patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, which are often very tenacious.

In formulating the Schema-Focused approach, Young combined the best aspects of cognitive-behavioral, experiential, interpersonal and psychoanalytic therapies into one unified model of treatment. Through Young’s work and the efforts of those trained by him, Schema-Focused Therapy has shown remarkable results in helping people to change patterns which they have lived with for a long time, even when other methods and efforts they have tried before have been largely unsuccessful.

Schema’s that REBT / Cognitive and Schema Focused Therapy Focus on:
Emotional Deprivation: The belief and expectation that your primary needs will never be met. The sense that no one will nurture, care for, guide, protect or empathize with you.

Abandonment: The belief and expectation that others will leave, that others are unreliable, that relationships are fragile, that loss is inevitable, and that you will ultimately wind up alone.

Mistrust/Abuse: The belief that others are abusive, manipulative, selfish, or looking to hurt or use you. Others are not to be trusted.

Defectiveness: The belief that you are flawed, damaged or unlovable, and you will thereby be rejected.

Social Isolation: The pervasive sense of aloneness, coupled with a feeling of alienation.

Vulnerability: The sense that the world is a dangerous place, that disaster can happen at any time, and that you will be overwhelmed by the challenges that lie ahead.

Dependence/Incompetence: The belief that you are unable to effectively make your own decisions, that your judgment is questionable, and that you need to rely on others to help get you through day-to-day responsibilities.

Enmeshment/Undeveloped Self: The sense that you do not have an identity or “individuated self” that is separate from one or more significant others.

Failure: The expectation that you will fail, or belief that you cannot perform well enough.

Subjugation: The belief that you must submit to the control of others, or else punishment or rejection will be forthcoming.

Self-Sacrifice: The belief that you should voluntarily give up of your own needs for the sake of others, usually to a point which is excessive.

Approval-Seeking/Recognition-Seeking: The sense that approval, attention and recognition are far more important than genuine self-expression and being true to oneself.

Emotional Inhibition: The belief that you must control your self-expression or others will reject or criticize you.

Negativity/Pessimism: The pervasive belief that the negative aspects of life outweigh the positive, along with negative expectations for the future.

Unrelenting Standards: The belief that you need to be the best, always striving for perfection or to avoid mistakes.

Punitiveness: The belief that people should be harshly punished for their mistakes or shortcomings.

Entitlement/Grandiosity: The sense that you are special or more important than others, and that you do not have to follow the rules like other people even though it may have a negative effect on others. Also can manifest in an exaggerated focus on superiority for the purpose of having power or control.

Insufficient Self-Control/Self-Discipline: The sense that you cannot accomplish your goals, especially if the process contains boring, repetitive, or frustrating aspects. Also, that you cannot resist acting upon impulses that lead to detrimental results.

Reference: "A Client's Guide to Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy" by David C. Bricker, Ph.D. and Jeffrey E. Young, Ph.D.,
Cognitive Therapy Center of New York. 1993.

Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy

http://www.beckinstitute.org

Cognitive Therapy and Research Journal:

http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/CAL/CTR/CTR.html

Cognitive Distortions:

http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~fredkin/cognitivelist.html