Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) aims to solve problems and change negative ways of thinking that lead to anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders. Prior experiences and responses to negativity in the past can lead to learned negative reactions. Identifying these reactions through CBT helps to understand these patterns and avoid them in the future.

 

The basic theory of CBT is that thoughts and feelings are consistently linked. By taking a practical approach to changing one’s patterns of thoughts, it is possible to change one’s feelings. A person with depression (a mood disorder) has thoughts of hopelessness, helplessness, pointlessness, and worthlessness. Someone with anxiety perceives danger or threats in their environment, or feels nervousness and unease surrounding events with uncertain outcomes. Someone with feelings of anger may find they are often associated with perceptions of unfairness, hostility, or indifference in their environment.

 

In CBT, individuals are encouraged to become aware of and scrutinize their thoughts, as well as to learn to recognize thinking errors called ‘cognitive distortions’. Examples of cognitive distortions are all or nothing thinking, mind reading, fortune telling, and labeling, among others.

 

When an individual is able to identify thinking errors, it becomes possible to develop alternative perceptions. By establishing alternative perceptions it is possible to gain control of negative feelings and to overcome the challenges associated with depression, anxiety and anger.