How to Coach Yourself and Others Empowering Coaching And Crisis Interventions | Page 89

This book is in B&W, not color - Print page in Grayscale for Correct view! 2. Cognitive Behavioural Counselling Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. —Frank Outlaw Cognitive behavioural counselling (therapy), or CBT, has been empirically tested in hundreds of studies. The results have demonstrated its usefulness for a wide range of social, emotional, and mental health problems such as mood disorders (depression, bipolar disorder), anxiety disorders (obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder), substance use problems, eating disorders, gambling problems, anger, personality disorders, stress, and unresolved grief (Butler, Chapman, Forman & Beck, 2006; Chamless & Ollendick, 2001). American psychiatrist Aaron Temkin Beck (1921–) is considered the founder of CBT. The central assumptions behind Beck’s approach are these: ■ Problems/distress is caused by faulty thinking (cognitive distortions) and negative interpretation; thus, our thoughts and beliefs affect our behaviour and emotions. ■ People may pay too much attention to anxiety-provoking stimuli rather than to neutral or positive stimuli. ■ Behaviour is learned; it can be unlearned. The key to changing problematic behaviour or emotions is to explore and modify distorted thinking, and then to learn and practise new responses. CBT focuses on understanding current thinking (the present) and problem solving to develop new behaviours. Marie and Aiesha are passengers on the same airline flight. Marie is consumed by her fear that the plane will crash, thinking, “This is a dangerous situation. What if the engines fail? And air turbulence will surely tear the plane apart.” Aiesha boards the plane and quickly immerses herself in a book with no intrusive thoughts of dying. Ellis (2004) developed the famous ABC model (Figure 7.2) as a tool for understanding why Marie and Aiesha experience the flight so differently. In the model: ■ A represents an activating event (in this case the airplane flight). ■ B refers to the beliefs that are triggered by the activating event, A. ■ C is the consequent emotion or behavioural reaction. Clearly, Marie’s beliefs about flying are markedly different from Aiesha’s. Cognitive behavioural counselling would concentrate on how Marie can modify her thinking about flying, which is based on erroneous and distorted beliefs about its dangers. For [email protected] Property of Bookemon, do NOT distribute 89