Category: Therapist Resources
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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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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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Using Motivational Interviewing To Enhance Patient Commitment To Therapy
Patients come into therapy at varying stages of change. Some patients may be extremely motivated to engage with you and the therapy whereas others may be quite ambivalent about whether therapy is the right course of action. One example of treatment ambivalence is a person coming into therapy because their family pushed them to reduce…
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How To Lead Mindfulness Practice As A Therapist
Mindfulness in therapy Mindfulness has become increasingly popular as a third wave therapy in psychological treatment. Unlike traditional cognitive therapy, which emphasizes more on changing negative thoughts that maintain our mental difficulties, mindfulness practice focuses on acceptance of our thoughts. It is based on the idea that what we resist, persists. The more try to…
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