As a clinical psychologist who practices CBT, I’m focused on helping therapy clients explore the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. I’ve written about some of these ideas and techniques in articles about automatic thoughts, distorted thinking, and how to use mindfulness and thought records to recognize and challenge unhelpful thoughts. In addition toContinue reading “Thanking Your Mind: An ACT Technique for Coping with Unhelpful Thoughts”
Tag Archives: cbt
Distress Tolerance Skills for Healthier Relationships
If you identify as a person with an insecure (i.e. anxious, avoidant, or fearful) attachment style and have decided to begin your healing journey, you’re going to encounter some challenging emotions. Change is never easy, even when it’s positive, and it’s normal to feel overwhelmed, defeated, or just plan uncomfortable as you heal your attachmentContinue reading “Distress Tolerance Skills for Healthier Relationships”
You are probably doing better than you think.
If you are a person who tends to get down on themselves and beat themselves up, this post is for you. I know you might not believe me, but…you are probably doing better than you think. I know you feel like you’re never good enough and you never will be, but…you are probably doing betterContinue reading “You are probably doing better than you think.”
The Courage to Have a “Good Enough” Holiday Season
Lots of people feel down or angst-ridden during the holiday season, and many will say that this malaise stems not from too much fruitcake consumption (surprisingly), but from our expectations – of ourselves, others, and the holidays themselves. The fact that society and the media constantly pump us full of unhealthy messages regarding how weContinue reading “The Courage to Have a “Good Enough” Holiday Season”
“Thought Records Don’t Work on Me.” The Second Secret Weapon That Interrupts Distorted Thinking
“Thought records don’t work on me.” Wanna know who said that? Me. So why did I write an entire post on how to complete a thought record last week? Because they’re an extremely important tool that can help you challenge distorted thoughts. 100 percent. AND… A thought record is not a magic pill that willContinue reading ““Thought Records Don’t Work on Me.” The Second Secret Weapon That Interrupts Distorted Thinking”
Using Thought Records to Challenge Distorted Thinking: A Step-By-Step Guide
A thought record is a major tool in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that guides us, step by step, through the process of challenging distorted, automatic thoughts. If you’ve been following my recent blog posts, you’ll know that in order to even recognize automatic thoughts as they’re occurring, you first need to practice mindfulness. You’ll alsoContinue reading “Using Thought Records to Challenge Distorted Thinking: A Step-By-Step Guide”
A Distorted Reality is NOT a Necessity to Be Free: How Cognitive Distortions Hold You Back
Sorry, Elliott Smith. I’ve been a huge fan of yours for ages, but in this post I’m going to talk about how our distorted thoughts make us anything but free. In last week’s post, I introduced the concept of automatic thoughts and explained the CBT principle that our thoughts lead to emotions, and emotions leadContinue reading “A Distorted Reality is NOT a Necessity to Be Free: How Cognitive Distortions Hold You Back”
Harnessing the Power of Automatic Thoughts
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) operates on the general principle that our thoughts influence our feelings, and our feelings influence our behaviors. Thoughts –> Feelings –> Behaviors For example, a person could have the thought: “I suck at my job.” This creates feelings of sadness, anger, hopelessness. Now in this negative emotional state, in the personContinue reading “Harnessing the Power of Automatic Thoughts”
Gina Davis, PsyD 