Effective CBT Therapy for Stress Reduction: Practical Approaches and Benefits

Stress can be your biggest enemy. It not only creates psychological issues but also contributes to physical concerns as well. Luckily, there are therapy options that will work well to help you manage stress better. Cognitive behavioural therapy is one of those common options. Unlike the other cases, CBT treatment is continued for a short period, which can take a few weeks to a few months to see noticeable results. The treatment focuses on providing you with the tools to solve your current issues and manage stress better. Let’s check out the techniques and the benefits of this therapy to know why it is a preferable one.

Techniques used with CBT

The main objective behind CBT is that your emotions get affected by patterns, which in turn causes differences in your behaviour. For instance, if you see CBT will highlight how negative thoughts can lead to negative actions or feelings. Now, if you rephrase your thoughts positively, there will be helpful behaviours and positive feelings. Your therapist will also teach you how to make changes that you can implement right now and see a bigger difference in your life.

After speaking with you, the therapist will decide on the best CBT strategies to use for your case. Some of the techniques that are most commonly used with CBT will include.

• Cognitive reconstructing or reframing

It is all about considering the negative thought patterns you have and making a change. The therapist will help you identify your negative pattern. Once you know them, you will learn to reframe those thoughts so that you can be more productive and positive.

• Guided discovery

In this case, the therapist will put themselves in your place and think from your viewpoint. Now, the professional will ask you some questions. You need to be patient as you might be asked to provide evidence to support your assumptions. With this, you will learn to see things from a different angle. It will give you a new viewpoint which you might not have had before.

• Exposure therapy

Exposure therapies work well for controlling phobias and fears. The therapist will expose you to things that provoke anxiety or fear while guiding you to cope with them.

• Journaling

Writing down your thoughts is the best way to relieve stress. Your therapist might ask you to write down all the negative thoughts you had between sessions, along with positive thoughts. Quoting everything in writing will help you see your growth well.

• Scheduling activity and behaviour activation

It’s all about trying out the activity that you tend to avoid due to anxiety or fear. Activity scheduling can work great for you to establish good habits and have a lot of opportunities to report into practice from what you have learnt.

• Behavioural experiments

These types of experiments are preferably used in the case of anxiety disorders that involve catastrophic thinking. Before you move on to do a task that makes you anxious, you will be asked to predict what will happen. Now, at the end of it, you need to say if the prediction came true. With this, you will see that your predictions are not very likely to happen. So it will help you reduce your anxiety.

• Stress reduction techniques

During CBT therapy, you will learn some progressive relaxation techniques such as muscle relaxation, deep breathing exercises, imagery, etc. It will help reduce stress and increase your control.

• Role playing

Role playing can be a great way to work through different behaviours in difficult situations. Playing out possible scenarios will also help reduce your fear and improve problem-solving skills, social skills, communication skills, etc.

• Successive approximation

This approach is all about taking all the tasks that seem difficult or overwhelming to you and then breaking them into smaller sections. As you finish each step, you will gain the confidence to move on.

Benefits of CBT therapy

Given how stress can impact the life of the person, getting professional support here can make a major difference. Here are the benefits one can expect to get from CBT therapy.

• You will learn why a specific situation causes stress responses in you.
• You will learn how a specific thinking pattern or behaviour pattern keeps you stuck or prevents you from feeling better.
• You will identify new ways of thinking and behaving, which can help completely reduce some stress in your life. Also, it will enable you to tackle unavoidable situations better, which will make you feel less stressed.
• You will develop a new understanding and gain confidence in your ability to deal with stressful situations.

Conclusion:

Taking professional support for stress can work wonders for you. It will give you a new perspective on things and ensure you learn to manage different situations in a calm way. If you are looking for this support, then trusting Gold Coast Psychology Centre Pty Limited would help. They have the best professionals who will guide you in the right direction. Be it stress, calming activities, or new approaches to handling things, the experts will guide you and help you overcome different situations. So, if you are ready for a change, do not hesitate to get in touch with them for professional support.