It may feel frustrating to not have experienced relief from negative thoughts or feelings for a long time. You may also feel frustrated about the patterns of behavior you might feel stuck in. Or, you may feel that you don’t have the energy or desire to try new things or engage in activities you once enjoyed. With the busyness of work and relationships in the city, you may feel that you have not had time to work on changing these patterns, let alone even think of changing them. Our CBT therapists are here to help!
It is totally normal to experience frustration about not reaching your goals and to feel anxious or sad sometimes, especially if you feel like you are stuck in patterns that are not working for you. In addition, it is also normal to feel tired and disconnected at times, especially in a busy place like NYC. Whether you are experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, or both, psychotherapy can help you learn to manage the challenges effectively, decrease your distress about what are you struggling with, and move towards your goals with the help of a supportive person. Like many others who have already benefited from CBT psychotherapy, you too can increase your sense of well-being and get back on track.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety and can help you feel better.
Your therapist at MindWell NYC can offer help for the things you are struggling with using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, commonly known as CBT. MindWell NYC offers effective CBT treatment for anxiety, depression, and other challenges.
Cognitive and behavioral therapies are typically short-term treatments (i.e., between 3 months and a year) that focus on teaching you skills for specific challenges, such as anxiety or depression as mentioned above. CBT is different from many other therapy approaches, in that we focus more on the present moment and on the ways that your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected and affect one another. In the MindWell NYC CBT program, we work with our clients to identify and change parts of this cycle to decrease distress and move you towards reaching your goals.
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.
It is important to learn about how your thoughts and behaviors are related to your emotions.
In addition to learning more about your thoughts and behaviors, CBT therapy at MindWell NYC can increase your ability to identify emotions (feelings) you are experiencing (i.e., labeling emotions, and understanding what they feel like in your body). We can also help you learn to rate emotional intensity levels and become more aware of the way they relate to your thoughts and behaviors. Learning how to manage different emotions at varying intensity levels will help you change your behavior and problem solve difficult situations when needed.
You may have concerns or thoughts about participating in CBT therapy.
–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.
You Can Feel Better
CBT has been found to be effective for a variety of disorders and is strongly supported by research (Hoffman et al., 2012). At MindWell NYC, we will work with you to create a CBT therapy program that will meet your specific needs and help to improve your life. With years of training and experience, friendliness and warmth, the therapists at MindWell NYC are uniquely suited to help you reach your goals.
If you are struggling with anxiety or depression and are ready to take steps forward or have any questions about the therapy process, please contact us for a free 15 minute phone consultation today by calling 646.809.5440 or clicking below. We look forward to speaking with you.
