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Common Myths about CBT

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) doesn’t pay attention to emotions

You may heard that CBT results in changes in thoughts and behaviours, and although this is very much true, it can also be interpreted wrong and may lead you to believe that CBT doesn’t deal with emotions. The process of CBT actually helps individuals to improve how they handle their emotions as a therapist helps the client connect their thoughts and emotions, as thoughts often lead to emotions and emotions often inform behaviours. Addressing emotions is a key part of CBT therapy.

 

The process of CBT will be the same for everyone

CBT is often viewed as a very structured programme that can be applied to everyone in the same way and although CBT does tend to be more goal oriented than other talk therapies and therefore tends to follow a more structured approach, it is certainly not a cookie cutter programme. Each client will have a different experience of CBT therapy.

 

The Client Therapist relationship is less important for CBT

Similar to the previous point, because CBT is viewed as a more structured approach, the relationship between therapist and client can often be labelled as less important. However, in any therapeutic setting the relationship between therapist and client will impact the effectiveness. In order for a therapeutic connection to be established the therapist should always work in collaboration with the client and both should contribute to the process of problem solving throughout the process of therapy. Feeling comfortable to share with your therapist is absolutely crucial and if you feel you are struggling to connect with your therapist, you can always openly discuss this with them.

 

CBT doesn’t consider a person’s past

A lot of traditional talk therapies place a lot of emphasis on the past. In comparison to these other talk therapies, it may seem that CBT doesn’t consider the past, however CBT takes past experiences into consideration as CBT therapists understand that these experiences may still contribute to our present state. The focus will be on past experiences that are still relevant to the therapeutic process.

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