Decades of research have shown that there is an area in the left-hemisphere of our brains that constantly makes up stories about anything and everything! The pioneer of the research, neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga and his colleagues call it “the … Read More
Self-Generated Thought in the Brain and Cognitive Psychotherapies
Self-Generated Thought and the Wandering Mind
How to start? How to start… Maybe I should have prepared an outline first. Oh, this is too complicated to simplify. No, it’s not. It’ll be easier after I started. But, how to start? … Read More
Quiting Smoking: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Session
John asked for our help for quiting smoking, and it has been a few sessions that we have been working together with him on this issue. In this session, we try to understand his need and desire to smoke when … Read More
Self Help: How to Make That Change in Your Life
1. Know What You Want to Change
You might already know what needs to be changed or you just have a sense that something in your life has to change, but you do not know what it is. Gilbert Chesterton said “Sometimes … Read More
A CBT Session: Compulsive Checking (Part 2)
A CBT Session: Compulsive Checking (Part 1)
Our session with Claire was supposed to start 15 mins ago. While wondering why she might have been late, I was sitting on my chair enjoying my cup of coffee as I heard a car engine stopped. She must have … Read More
Cognitive Distortions and How to Overcome Them
Cognitive distortions is a concept from cognitive behavioral therapy, which implies that we usually tend to think in some biased way.
Normally, having cognitive distortions is neither a deficit nor a disorder, but it is just a by-product of how … Read More
Automatic Thoughts: What are They and How can We Identify Them?
In this post, I will try to tell you about what automatic thoughts are and how to identify them.
Sometimes, all of a sudden, we find ourselves feeling depressed, anxious, furious, guilty… However, we can’t tell why. If someone asks, we … Read More
How to Challenge Automatic Thoughts in CBT
In one of our previous posts, we examined What Automatic Thoughts are and How to Identify Them Using CBT Techniques.
In this post, I will try to tell you about how to challenge automatic thoughts in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
You … Read More