No therapy approach is right for everyone, but if there was one style versatile enough for anyone, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), would certainly come close. The basic principles of CBT can be applied to improve just about anyone’s lived experience and address a wide array of concerns, including anxiety, depression, and trauma. A therapist will work with you to determine the best approach to therapy, but if you’re curious about CBT, this blog will lay out some of the many benefits of this approach.
Increased Self-Awareness
Perhaps the most important benefit of CBT is the way that it centers on increasing self-awareness. So much of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors happen in autopilot. We may know something feels off, but we can’t put our finger on why. Or you may have overwhelming feelings of sadness or worry, but you’re not able to understand how these feelings are impacting your thoughts and behaviors. CBT helps you to more easily recognize how thoughts, feelings, and actions are interconnected, so you can take steps to change your day-to-day experience for the better.
Develop Concrete, Real-World Coping Strategies
That brings us to a second important benefit of CBT. It’s focused on providing you with real-world coping strategies that can be directly applied to your daily life. A lot of talk therapy approaches are all in changing your thinking or managing your emotions, but CBT helps you learn strategies to interact and engage more fully with your loved ones and take greater pleasure and satisfaction in your daily life.
Stop Destructive Behaviors, Negative Thought Patterns & Emotional Dysregulation
The goal of these coping strategies and tools you develop during CBT sessions is to help you understand and overcome emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that are causing struggles within your daily life. Specifically, CBT focuses on understanding how these three things are connected and how changing one aspect can impact the other two. For example, if you’re experiencing a mood disorder like anxiety, the feelings of worry or fear may prevent you from feeling confident enough to ask for a raise at your job. You know you deserve the raise, but you settle because thinking of asking for the increased wage is frightening. The feelings of anxiety may trigger negative thoughts like that you aren’t good enough or you don’t deserve more. This means you won’t take steps to ask for the raise, which can adversely impact your ability to thrive in your personal life. CBT can help you recognize all these areas of interconnectedness as well as how making small changes can lead to significant improvement. For instance, if you challenged negative thoughts as they came up, you might start to feel more confident and less anxious. This could lead to being capable to take actions to advocate for the wage you deserve.
Schedule a Session with a Trusted Therapist
Ready to explore the many ways CBT can change your life? The Center for CBT in New York City is here to support your goals. We make scheduling an appointment with us quick and easy. You can call our office at (917) 596-8955 or take a few moments to fill out our online contact form. Once we hear from you, a member of the team will be in touch to finalize the details of your upcoming visit, so don’t hesitate to ask any questions you have once we get in touch.
