Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy first piqued my interest because of mounting research on its effectiveness. Based on the work of Dr. David Burns, I found it a bit heady and tedious at first, but with practice I learned how my mind worked against me by running a constant narrative of distorted thoughts based on self-defeating beliefs.
I learned to identify thoughts that were distorting my reality and creating negative effects in my life. With this awareness, I could apply tools to challenge and reframe my thoughts. Getting authority over my thoughts was a game changer that paved the way to help me better understand my emotional life and my brain’s strategies to avoid negative emotion.
My commitment to doing the work paid off. I can now process negative emotions and neutralize distorted thoughts pretty quickly. This creates mental space to craft realistic and believable thoughts using methods I now know work for me.
My own personal success made me eager to share these tools with my clients and lead me to pursue training in TEAM-CBT (TEAM is an acronym that stands for Testing, Empathy, Agenda-Setting and Methods).