Gary Vaughan
Clinical Psychologist
& Psychotherapist
Treatment Approaches
Offered
To contact me
Call: 0401 791 570
email: info@garyvaughan.com.au
Problems Treated
- Stress
- Panic
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Anger
- Self-esteem
- Relating & Relationship
Difficulties - Trauma
- Childhood Abuse & Trauma
- Grief & Loss
Copyright©2011 Gary Vaughan
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
I consider CBT to be a very useful short-term skills-based approach. CBT comprises a combination of cognitive therapy and behaviour therapy. These therapies can be used on their own, or in combination.
Cognitive therapy involves working on the way that you think. It is difficult to directly change the way that you feel (i.e., depressed, anxious, etc.). But changing the (often negative and irrational) way that you think and behave, can indirectly influence how you feel. Cognitive therapy involves restructuring irrational thinking (such as, thinking overly negative; jumping to conclusions; or blowing things out of proportion) into more rational thinking (which is accurate, logical, reasonable, and in-perspective).
Learning this skill involves observing and monitoring your thinking at the times that you are anxious or depressed or angry (depending on the predominant feeling that you are troubled by). Then challenging this thinking in terms of the irrationality, by identifying and understanding where and how the thinking is irrational. It can be useful to become aware of your particular patterns of distortion (e.g., regularly jumping to conclusions; or catastrophizing). And then coming up with (reconstructing) more rational thoughts about the same situation. And finally, repeating and rehearsing this process over and over … challenging irrational thinking, and constructing and rehearsing rational thinking. This process is initially written this down on paper until it is sufficiently learnt and understood, when it can then be carried out in your head.
Behaviour therapy can vary from learning and practising healthy activities such as slow-breathing, relaxation, or meditation … to working through avoidance behaviour with exposure therapy and systematic desensitization (which is particularly relevant with some anxiety disorders).