by Andrew Thorn

Created on: October 26, 2009   Last Updated: October 29, 2009

Imagine for a moment how every experience you have ever had in your life gets logged away in your memory.

Your whole perspective on everything becomes skewed over the years by the way in which your experiences are logged, uniquely by you.

We all look at the world through our own self generated filters; our prejudices, likes, dislikes, culture, upbringing and our experiences. The 'map' most certainly is NOT the territory!

This unique map we each create of our lives is described by cognitive behavioural therapists as our 'cognitive triad', simply put, our views of ourselves, the world and our future.

Our resulting 'core beliefs' become more and more rigid over time, a consequence of the way in which our assumptions are manifested by our core views, leading us to behave in ways that come directly from, and often reinforce our own automatic thinking.

Cognitive behavioural therapy seeks to help a person identify the origins of negative automatic thinking. This is known as 'developing a formulation'.

Using this formulation, a therapist will suggest methods to help a person identify dysfunctional assumptions and to specify the negative automatic thoughts (the cognitions).

Many different techniques are used throughout treatments in order to help a person challenge the identified negative thoughts and try out new ways of thinking and behaving in previously problematic situations.

This is done through practicing new behaviours and experiments with the intention of allowing a person opportunity to experience different outcomes to previous patterns of set behaviours; often resulting in the acquisition of new attitudes and to modified beliefs.

It is extensively documented that CBT has proven to be an effective treatment method for many people with many problems, both long term and more transient. However it must be said that it relies heavily on the motivation of a person to 'buy into' the model and to be willing to delve deeply into the past. Furthermore, the nature of the therapy makes it heavily 'problem orientated'.

In this new age of therapeutic intervention where we focus upon 'wellness' and individualised recovery journeys, then perhaps CBT in its purest form has had its day. In the wrong hands, CBT can be wooden, disempowering and lead not to solutions but to over-analysed hypochondriasis.

It, nevertheless remains a mainstream and often effective therapy and deserves recognition; perhaps more so as a legitimate springboard for innovative practitioners to develop new ways of thinking under the umbrella of global credibility.

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