Example of a CBT process - ruah.com.au

Example of a CBT process

Activating Belief/thought Consequence Dispute with Evidence
Event feelings/behaviour

I have to give a It's going to be Anxious, afraid, can't Realistically I do not know what

presentation in AWFUL. I'll be concentrate on putting other people will be thinking
together the content feel ill, ahead of time or even in the
work! shaking, my mouth can't stop thinking about it. moment. I do not know that they
will laugh at me. That is fortune
will be dry, and I telling a future that I have no clue
about. For the thought that I will
won't be able to be shaking', 'I can't do it', and
'People will laugh atme' Iam
talk. I can't do it. again fortune telling. I simply fear
these imaginings, I have no actual
People will laugh at evidence those thoughts are
rational and correct.
me.

For more Information go to -

The Centre for Clinical Interventions offers CBT courses in Perth, Western Australia and they
have a large range of resources and workbooks on their website.
http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au

Get Self Help- CBT self-help information, resources and tools
http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/freedownloads.htm

Feeling Good - The New Mood Therapy by David Burns MD - a self help guide to CBT.

The Australian Psychological Society of Australia to find a practitioner near you.
http://www.psychology.org.au

Created on 4 July 2011 2

Unhelpful Thinking Styles

Some of the more common unhelpful thinking styles include:

Mental Filter: a "filtering in" and "filtering out" process, or a sort of "tunnel vision" of
focusing on only one part of a situation and ignoring the rest. Generally the focus is on the
negative parts of a situation and disregarding the positive parts. This results in the whole
picture being labelled as negative by what may have been only one single negative detail.

Jumping to Conclusions: We often jump to conclusions when we assume that we know
what someone else is thinking, also known as mind reading. We can also engage in
predictive thinking when we make predictions about what is going to happen in the future.

Personalisation: Involves blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong or could go
wrong, even when you are not responsible or may only be partly responsible. This may result
in you taking 100% responsibility for the occurrence of external events.

Catastrophising: occurs when we blow things out of proportion and view the situation as
terrible, awful, dreadful, and horrible, when in reality the problem is quite small.

Black & White Thinking: involves seeing only one extreme or the other. You are either right or
wrong or good or bad. There are no inbetweens or shades of gray.

Shoulding and Musting: by saying "I should " or "I must " can put unreasonable demands or
pressure on yourself and others. Although these statements may not be always unhelpful they
can at times create unrealistic expectations.

Overgeneralisation: occurs when we take one instance in the past or present, and impose it
on all current or future situations. If we say "You always " or "Everyone " you are likely to be
overgeneralising.

Labelling: We label ourselves and others when we make global statements based on
behaviour in specific situations. We may continue to use a certain label even when it is not
100% accurate.

Emotional Reasoning: involves making judgments about yourself or a situation based on
your feelings. For example, the only evidence that something bad is going to happen is that

you feel like something bad is going to happen.

Magnification and Minimisation: In this thinking style, you magnify the positive attributes of
other people and minimise or in some cases cannot even see your own positive attributes.

Created on 4 July 2011 3