Category: For Therapists
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Potential Pitfalls Of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (And How To Fix Them)
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is often thought of as the gold treatment standard for mental health issues. This is because CBT is evidence-based, meaning that research has consistently supported the benefits of treatment. Moreover, most hospital-settings prefer CBT as the primary psychological treatment because it is short-term (to reduce wait times to receive services) and…
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5 Common Therapy Goals For Anxiety And How To Work On Them
Anxiety is a common problem that people come into therapy to treat. However, what exactly are folks hoping to change by coming into treatment? This post discusses five goals for anxiety commonly discussed in therapy. The first four relate to overarching goals that most folks with anxiety problems could probably benefit from improving. The final…
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Benefits of Providing Validation As A Therapist
What is Validation? Validation is affirming that what a client is feeling makes sense. That there is something ‘valid’ about their emotional experience to an event. Providing validation is a very common skill used by therapists. It is a way to communicate understanding and acceptance of the human in front of them. In doing so,…
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Benefits Of Using Socratic Questioning In Therapy
Socratic questioning is a common technique that psychologists employ in therapy. The principles of Socratic questioning revolve around the idea that learning and ideas can be discovered by asking the right questions rather than simply telling the person. Socratic questioning is particularly helpful when it comes to bringing insight into a person’s life and their…
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Everything You Need To Know About CBT For Insomnia
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is considered the frontline, gold standard treatment for chronic insomnia. However, people are generally less familiar with CBT-I compared to other available treatment options, such as sleep medication. Therefore, it can be helpful to understand more about what CBT-I is and how it works. In this post, I discuss…
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How Effective Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Insomnia
Introduction Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is a research-supported treatment and is considered the first-line intervention for chronic sleep problems by the American Academy of Sleep Sciences. In this post, I discuss how CBT-I works, whether it is effective in treating sleep and other problems, and how to get the most out of treatment.…
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Rapport Building Strategies To Improve The Therapeutic Relationship
“It is the relationship that heals.” As Irvin Yalom, an esteemed psychiatrist so eloquently put, a positive therapeutic alliance is essential to the patient’s outcome in therapy. There may be many reasons for the relationship to be healing. It may foster belief in the patient that there are other people that truly understands their problem…
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How To Evaluate A Sleep Diary: For CBT Insomnia Therapists
What is a sleep diary? A sleep diary is a prospective measure that allows people to track their nightly sleep routine. Carney et al. (2012) developed the Consensus Sleep Diary, which is the gold standard measure for sleep tracking. The sleep diary can be found here. Each morning, the patient is asked to spend a…
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How To Spend The First Session In Therapy As A CBT Therapist
Therapists, especially student clinicians and those at an earlier stage of their career, can often feel disoriented about what the first session of therapy should look like. In particular, they may experience a lot of pressure to make the session worthwhile for patients and feel compelled to resolve their problems by the end of the…
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Stuff You Should Go Through Every Session As A CBT Therapist
Sessions in therapy changes depending on the specific patient and their presenting problem, goals for therapy, and case formulation (hypotheses about what might be the cause of a person’s psychological distress). Fortunately, a benefit of CBT is that it is very structured. There is a guiding roadmap so that the therapist never loses themselves in…
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