Hi, Welcome back.
First, let’s see who remembers the three parts of the CBT triangle.
Good. Last week, we identified signs and symptoms of depression and automatic thoughts. We also identified our feelings and needs. In addition, we learned two new tools. Identifying cognitive distortions and using guided meditation as a coping tool.
If you are having barriers to spending five minutes a day write down the barriers and see if you can identify ways to overcome that barrier. Remember, attaching a new behavior to a habit you already have, like brushing your teeth or charging your phone, increases the chance you will make small changes!
Identify positive emotion and enjoyable activity (5 minutes)
Last week we talked about a time we could remember a strong negative emotion. I would like you to think of a moment that you had a strong positive emotion and write that down.
Next, what are some things you enjoy doing when you aren’t feeling depressed? How about we write that underneath that.
Key points: Emotions come in ranges- are the emotions you are feeling proportionate to the situation? (Beck, p. 31)
You should expect to feel everything, and that is not a bad thing. Negative emotions are a normal part of life. (Beck, p. 31)
Identify automatic thoughts (10 minutes)
Last week we identified automatic thoughts. When we pay attention to the “mental movie” or automatic thoughts in our head we have taken the first step. Next, we want to identify the negative thinking and replace it with positive thinking.
Take a look at this worksheet on how to challenge your thinking:
![](http://www.weebly.com/weebly/images/file_icons/pdf.png)
challengingthinking.pdf | |
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Think about a time when you had a negative automatic thought? Can you reframe this into a positive thought?
If you recall negative thoughts from last week, identify automatic thoughts you had and write them down. Now, rewrite them into a positive thought.
Discuss range of emotions (3 minutes)
Think about a time when you were VERY happy, VERY sad, or VERY angry. Sometimes our emotions are VERY big and may not be appropriate in a situation. If you have ever felt very angry or sad about something and later realized that the emotion was bigger than the situation called for at the time, you may have been having a cognitive distortion. What were you thinking. What did you need?
Socratic questioning (7 minutes)
Use the worksheet above to process another time when you had a VERY strong emotion that was more intense than the situation called for at the time.
Great job, now we want to provide you with another tool:
Progressive muscle relaxation (5 minutes)
(It is also shown at the end of the page but here is the link, also!)
https://youtu.be/wXUxiR6yQ_Q
This week try using this healthy coping tool once a day.
Release negative statements with positive statements
Our goal: when we notice a cognitive distortion we will replace it with a positive statement.
When situations arise and you notice a negative emotion, ask yourself if you are thinking rationally or if a cognitive distortion is occurring.
When you identify a cognitive distortion, we want you to process this using Socratic questioning from the worksheet above.
Summary:
This session we continue to work on identifying thoughts, feelings, and emotions. We also discussed challenging our thinking using socratic questioning. This time we also tried to identify if strong emotions are always justified in the situation. Socratic questions to challenge our thinking included:
What is the situation?
What am I thinking or imagining?
How does this make me feel?
What makes me think the thought is not true or not completely true?
What is another way to look at this?
What is the worst thing that could happen?
What will probably happen?
What could happen if I change my thinking?
What would I tell a friend in this situation?
What will I do now?
Our goal is to practice progressive muscle relaxation and when a cognitive distortion arises, to replace the negative thought with a positive statement.