Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a therapeutic modality that is widely accepted and used among counsellors and psychotherapists alike. CBT methods, theory, and interventions have been continuously backed by academic studies, making it a top pick for treating psychological disorders and everyday struggles, such as depression, anxiety, grief, and low self-esteem. Finding a CBT counsellor in Abbotsford who utilizes CBT in their counselling practice may help you to understand unhelpful patterns in your thinking and the behaviours that result from them, leading you to make the necessary changes to improve your overall mood and well-being. CBT uses the fundamental theory that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are all interconnected and influenced by each other, thus affecting our emotional and behavioural state.
CBT Points to Consider from a Counsellor Viewpoint
The cognitive triad is a key area to consider when using CBT, including recognizing our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours and how they influence each other and become interconnected. The thoughts we have throughout our day may consist of negative automatic thoughts, leading to a pattern developing where we perceive our worldview negatively. When entertaining our negative automatic thoughts, we are susceptible to having them directly influence our emotions, ultimately leading to psychological challenges such as depression or anxiety. The negative thoughts and emotions can then affect our behaviours, including how we respond to events or people and act towards ourselves and others. As people, we use thoughts, emotions, and behaviours to view and make sense of the world around us, making it extremely important to be aware of their quality and impact on our psychological well-being.
Cognitive Distortions from a Counsellor Viewpoint
In Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, we are starting to experience a shift in weather patterns and seasonal change, moving from a beautiful mild autumn to a cold winter. Working as a counsellor in Abbotsford requires awareness of the influx of seasonal affective disorder and how this impacts mental health in the community. Oftentimes, during these seasonal changes, there can be an uptick in the number of cognitive distortions we may develop, simply because when we are feeling depression and anxiety due to weather and season changes, our worldview and thought patterns will also become negatively affected. One cognitive distortion that may arise is an all-or-nothing way of thinking, which includes seeing situations as either good or bad. As a CBT counsellor in Abbotsford, I may draw attention to this fallacy and show the client that there can be a middle ground. For example, with the cold winter weather arriving, an individual may experience a mindset where they are only happy if it is sunny out. This all-or-nothing way of thinking indicates that the only way for the individual to be happy is if there is sunshine and warm weather, making the winter months especially daunting and overwhelming. With a counsellor, the individual may recognize this negative thought pattern and the cognitive distortion, helping the individual to change their point of view and understand ways to feel happiness during the cold winter months.
The Counsellor at Straight Path Counselling
At Straight Path Counselling we focus on the individual, providing a completely client-centred approach that provides autonomy, empathy, care, and positive regard to every life struggle and psychological challenge. We have a CBT counsellor in Abbotsford at Straight Path Counselling who is available for virtual sessions, making it easy and convenient to schedule a session. Our counsellor also draws from several therapeutic modalities, one of which is cognitive behavioural therapy, making it a useful method and tool to overcome depression, anxiety, grief and loss, and low self-esteem.
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