Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

No matter what you're dealing with, it's normal to feel stuck in negative patterns that seem impossible to break. You might be struggling with persistent anxiety, depression, or simply feeling disconnected from things you used to enjoy. Our therapists specialize in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help you understand and overcome these challenges.

Are You Experiencing Symptoms of Anxiety or Depression?

It’s not uncommon to feel stuck in unhelpful patterns, whether it’s persistent negative thoughts, a lack of motivation, or difficulty finding joy in activities you once loved. These challenges can often be tied to anxiety or depression. Through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), you can gain the tools to address these issues, fostering a path toward a more balanced and fulfilling life.

Noticeable changes in behavior APPEAR

Perhaps you’ve been feeling more on edge than usual, easily overwhelmed by everyday stressors. This might result in frequent irritability, arguments with loved ones, or difficulties at work or in social situations.

Retreating and losing interest become frequent

Alternatively, you might find yourself withdrawing more than before, avoiding social interactions, and losing interest in activities you once enjoyed. This pullback could be a sign that something deeper is affecting your mood and energy levels.

Therapy can help

Regardless of your struggles, you may be considering that it’s time to talk to a therapist.

Our thoughts can sometimes be problematic.

Certain thinking patterns are common and we all experience them. Sometimes, however, certain thinking patterns can become problematic. When this happens, we can help you learn to evaluate your own thinking in a more realistic and adaptive way and you may experience improvement in emotions and behavior. Sometimes when we evaluate our thoughts, we find that they are not actually based on facts. With the help of your MindWell NYC CBT therapist, you can learn to restructure these thoughts to be more accurate.

One thing we may work on is how to evaluate these thoughts by asking questions such as:

What is the evidence for or against this belief?
Is there an alternative explanation?
What’s the worst thing that could happen?
What’s the best thing that could happen?

We may ask you to keep track of your thoughts in order to become more aware and practice evaluating them. This might include labeling different types of thinking patterns, such as:

Catastrophizing- predicting the worst case scenario for the future
Mental filter- paying a lot of attention to one detail instead of seeing the whole picture
Mindreading- believing you know what others are thinking without having evidence or considering other possibilities

Behaviors can have a big impact on your mood.

In addition to working on thoughts with your MindWell NYC CBT therapist, we will focus on understanding and reducing problematic behaviors, and creating more effective behaviors that are in line with your goals. Our CBT therapy program can also help you to identify behaviors that you find to be enjoyable and rewarding and work with you to integrate these more into your life.

We know that there is an association between mood and activities – what we do has a direct effect on how we feel. We may ask you to keep track of your daily activities as well as your mood related to those activities. Keeping track of this can give us both critical information about things that may be contributing to negative mood and can help us problem-solve behaviors that interfere with meeting your goals. You may even discover that you experience more daily pleasures in your life than you were previously aware of.

In addition, part of your cognitive behavioral therapy work may include utilizing exposure exercises. Research has found that by practicing or doing the things that are difficult or that you fear, you can become much better at tolerating anxiety and often feel less anxious in those situations over time. At MindWell NYC, you and your therapist will collaboratively discuss the most effective ways to do this for you. Your CBT therapist will support you throughout this process.

Navigating through the overwhelming amount of self-help advice can be confusing.

It’s common to feel stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts or emotions without knowing where to turn. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers a way to break free from these patterns by helping you understand the root of your struggles and develop personalized strategies for change. Whether you’re dealing with anxiety, depression, or other challenges, our CBT therapists are here to guide you toward a more balanced and fulfilling life.

You May Have Some Questions About CBT…

I don’t have time for therapy.

This is a common roadblock that gets in the way of seeking help. We know that spending 45 minutes/week in session for most individuals is MUCH LESS TIME than they spend worrying about the future, focusing on their past, and feeling stuck. We are here to make your session time as productive as possible and send you on your way and back to your life with a new toolkit for managing life’s stressors.

Therapy is expensive.

It can be worth the investment of money to work with a skilled professional who can help with the particular problems you are seeking assistance for. You may increase your productivity and money made at work, decrease money spent on habits that are not in line with your values, decrease stress, and even improve your physical health. The potential benefits of therapy are many.

Medication works more quickly.

Although medication may help relieve some symptoms, therapy will teach you skills to use that will last long after you have stopped taking medication. Medication typically does not work immediately. It often takes several weeks to months to begin to work and unfortunately may include unpleasant side effects. We can help you make lasting changes in your life that belong to you and won’t go away if you choose to stop or are unable to take medication.