If you have read the previous article (What is CBT) you will have learned some interesting ideas. You may have noticed that one of the strength of CBT is its ability to teach helpful techniques and give you psychological tools. From my own work I have learned that when I teach the techniques, I am teaching a method that is designed to be repeated at home. In fact that is the whole point of CBT. It deliberately gives you exercises to carry out outside the therapy room, so that much of the therapy is self help anyway.
CBT teaches techniques and gives you tools to help you manage your thinking, emotions, behavior and general reactions in a far more effective and rational way. CBT and CBT techniques differ in an obvious way, one is therapy where you learn the techniques with your therapist; the other, you purely learn the techniques in a self help program of some sort, and then apply them to your own particular problem.
Ninety percent of what is learned in CBT is actually outside the therapeutic setting by way of homework exercises. These exercises are the same wherever you learn them. Much depends on the teacher, but that is true of any setting you will find yourself in. If you are lucky enough to get a good teacher whether that is in formal setting, in a self help book, or in this type of setting, the quality of the teaching will determine the outcome as well as your own determination.
In fact CBT is so ideally suited for learning the techniques in a self help way; we simply need to extend the already widely accepted method where practice is an essential part of the learning. It happens outside the therapy room, often at home, at work and in social situations where you practice what you are learning. In fact you can be taught inside the therapeutic setting or program, then you practice it outside.
True, you may need to talk about your problem, and that is completely valid. It is true that here in this setting we can’t do that. Here, I am not therapist, I am tutor and this might be one of the drawbacks of this particular method for you. In the program you are offered a twenty minute Skype call once a week where your problems can be addressed. It is true that in this program I don’t pretend to be carrying out therapy; not everyone wants therapy anyway. It is however a way to learn these very valuable CBT techniques in an effective way with someone who has been teaching them for many years.
In CBT the course of treatment is normally between twelve to sixteen sessions, because this is the average time it takes to master the techniques.
When I worked for the Health Service there were session limitations due to funding, so it was not an ideal solution by any stretch of the imagination. It was compromise, life is compromise.
Here, one fantastically helpful thing is that you can watch the videos as many times as you need to in order to master the techniques, day or night, you have total flexibility and control whereas formal CBT has NO flexibility at all.
You can also use the videos as a resource for example, when, in the middle of the night (or any other time) you suddenly feel panic or anxiety coming on and don’t know what to do, you can immediately go the video of your choice and watch it as it will help you get through that bad moment. Therapy doesn’t take these moments into account; the therapist is usually only available at the set appointment times. Video lessons meet many of the unmet needs of therapy. I know from experience that often in therapy there is overload of information, therefore much of the teaching gets lost. However the same teaching carried out using video, allows you to be in control of how often you need to address a certain concept; you decide. Therefore you give yourself the opportunity to learn the techniques very thoroughly.
Many other therapies don’t seem to lend themselves to self-teaching as CBT does, and are not based on teaching these types of techniques. Many have a structure that requires a therapist and a contained environment. This is not so with CBT, hence the many self books using CBT.
It is my experience that CBT (techniques) are absolutely suited to this type of program. I have adapted it so that the videos will serve as the main tool for your learning. You will have approximately twelve hours of video learning, plus more.
Whether I sit here in front of a camera, or in a therapy room, I am teaching the same techniques whether here or there, the techniques are the same techniques.
Although you won’t be able to discuss your personal issue with a therapist (and therefore won’t directly be able to apply the CBT techniques to your own specific problem) you will see plenty of demonstrations from me in many of the videos which teach you HOW to apply the techniques to any given situation. You simply watch these video’s and apply them for yourself. If you need to repeat watching them you can. You will also be able to email me and I will reply.
HOW to apply CBT to many of the common problems arising as a result of depression, anxiety or Stress related issues will become very clear; you are far more able to bring about change than you think and therefore it is a matter of adjusting to this new method of learning, nothing more. The benefits far outweigh the short comings and an added plus is that you have the program for life, not simply sixteen sessions. It is a life tool for you where you will use it as a valuable resource for many years to come.
For me all the above is enough to convince me and my hope is that all this makes as much sense to you as it does to me, if it does, use it, enjoy it and grow with it.
Thank you, enjoy, learn and progress
Carole