Who is CBT for?
- depression
- anxiety, including social anxiety,
- phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
- post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia
- bipolar disorder
- personality disorders
Also thought to be helpful for:
Insomnia
Alcohol and drug use
Chronic pain
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
CBT focuses on how your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect your feelings and actions
Concept
We interact with the world via our:
thoughts
emotions
physical feelings/sense
Actions
These are framed by our life experiences positive or negative and fit with ‘Schema’
A person’s schemas are not right or wrong, they are simply the product of assimilation of information.
Common limiting beliefs regarding self esteem
- Putting others’ needs before your own (developed often to keep yourself safe)
- Believing that you must control your emotions or others will reject you. (where emotions have been invalidated repeatedly=masking)
- Believing that you must be perfect, always striving to avoid mistakes (due to high standards from care givers)
- Fear that significant others will abandon you/not be able to provide emotional support (due to negative last experiences in relationships)
CBT asks us to identify why we may hold certain beliefs and how they are affecting us now.
CBT asks us to challenge our patterns of thinking as this influences our emotions and behaviour
We often talk to ourselves negatively – try to notice these narratives within. Don’t judge them – they are there for a reason. Instead, begin to challenge them
‘I’m an anxious person’
‘I’m a clumsy person’
Reframe?
CBT in Autism/ADHD
Lots of neurodivergent person’s trauma is not based upon our core beliefs or irrational fears, but upon genuine factors.
Mostly stigma associated with being different in a world that expects us to comply and shape shift in order to be more acceptable in neurotypical environments.
This leads to autistic people masking, hiding, suppressing their differences and different ways of being; we end up complying with neurotypical standards to essentially stay safe.
Group work and homework can burden the already large cognitive load and lead to invalidation
- The psychologists teach about how to be brave and ‘resilient’ in environments that actually cause trauma (due to social, communication and sensory differences).
- Becomes ‘exposure ‘ therapy
- Environments causing sensory overload are not irrational fears
Instead:
Neurodivergent client says “I don’t have any friends.”
Psychologist says, “Cool. Tell me more about that.”
-Is friends something they want?
-Do you want to share interest with others?
-What do other social interactions look like? With family for eg.
-Prefer making connection online?
-Where have you felt most comfortable? Least comfortable?
Validation rather than exclusion
- The psychologist asks the neurodivergent client, “what do you want to work on?”
- The neurodivergent client says, “I don’t have any friends.”
- The psychologist says, “Surely you must have some friends. What would your mother say if I asked her?”
- Client replies, “That I don’t have any friends.”
- Client feels invalidated and doesn’t want to engage. This is based on societies view on ‘we all need friends and to meet and socialise with them’
