CBT Essentials Part 3

Welcome to the third instalment of ‘CBT Essentials’ a new mini-series within Forrest Rambles where I’m exploring the building blocks of CBT.  I’m hoping this will be of interest to those of you who are curious about CBT and those who want to know more about what to expect from their treatment.  

The way I like to think about the early stages of therapy is that it’s you and your therapist getting together to draw a map.  The assessment identifies where you are starting, following this, goal setting identifies where you want to get to by the end of your sessions.  Agreeing this pre-planned destination will lead to a more focused therapy and an increased chance of reaching your goals.

Take your time to think about what you want from therapy.  Bear in mind that you are investing a lot of energy, time and potentially money, into this process, so you’ve got to be clear about why you are doing this. 

Initially you may be focused on simply wanting to feel happier, less anxious, less depressed etc. but it helps to be more specific.  Imagine if you had a magic wand which could take away your problems, how would day to day life be different?  What would you be doing that you aren’t doing now?

Having said this, I’m sorry to say that your therapist doesn’t have a magic wand, so make sure that your goals are realistic given your particular circumstances.  If you set too many goals, or they are not realistic, chances are you’ll feel pressured and won’t achieve them.  So make your goals somewhat challenging, but not too challenging!

It’s also helpful to think about a timeframe for your goals, when do you want to achieve this by and might some goals need to be reached before others can be considered?

Work with your therapist to establish your goals and write them down at the start of treatment.  Then use them throughout your sessions to ensure that you are heading in the right direction.  It may be helpful to use a rating scale to measure how close you are to achieving the goal e.g. ‘0’ means I’m nowhere near at all and ’10’ means I’ve done it!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this third ‘CBT Essentials’ blog.  Please share the link via your Social Media platforms and join me next month to learn more about how to get the most from your therapy.