Once upon a time I went to series of professional lectures by a Professor of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). He began his lecture with the statement that CBT was neither better nor worse than any other therapies and neither was it more effective or less effective. I agree with him and I don’t.
What do I mean?
Well, what he said next was that it was the therapy that had probably been measured the most,and we all know that it is the victor that gets to write history. In other words if you are the most written about, then you become the authority.
In my practice I have had people come in who say they have had CBT and it worked for them and others who said it did not.
What I want you to be aware of is that all therapy must be placed in context. In other words no one therapy fits all or is right for people all the time. When used in the right way at the right time with the right client CBT can be really quite effective.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is combination of two therapies.
Cognitive therapy looks at your thought patterns and is a form of self-analysis. It also looks at what thought patterns you might like to install in your mind.
Some people never pay attention to their thoughts and when they get into trouble they are unsure how to get out of it because life seems to be left to chance. Being aware of your thoughts is one of the cornerstones of the therapy I do with people.
Behavioural therapy is different in that it examines the behaviours you carry out.
When people are dysfunctional and have behavioural problems they may be doing old behaviours that no longer work. As Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result”.
Behavioural therapy also focuses on implementing new behaviours to take you to the different places you desire.
So Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is examining your thoughts, implementing new thoughts, examining your behaviours and designing those new behaviours with new thoughts.
Where Cognitive Behaviour Therapy really comes into its own is when it is used with hypnosis in a hypnotherapy session, which accelerates the whole process and make it stronger.
This is actually what hypnotists have been doing for thousands of years so Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is not new to us as it has been part of our standard toolkit.
The unconscious mind is the place of origin of all thoughts and behaviours. As a clinical hypnotherapist, I help people make those changes at a deep unconscious level, then those Cognitive Behavioural Therapy changes made become activated quicker and stronger to take you to the thoughts and behaviours you want to have to improve your life.
Of course emotions also are very big drivers of our thoughts and behaviours too so it is important to create good, constructive thoughts and behaviours.
With hypnosis you learn to feel good when a constructive thought pattern and behaviour is working well for you and that accelerates that whole process of change, helping you to experience a good and rewarding life.