The Advantages of CBT

The type of therapy we primarily use at Evolve Counseling Services is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It is supported by a large body of research that consistently indicates it is highly effective in treating depression and anxiety.

CBT provides direction on how to conquer convoluted problems. Imagine you took a bookshelf home from Ikea. You remove it from the packaging and all the pieces are laying on the ground. Suddenly, you realize there were no instructions included. Now, you have to figure out how the pieces fit together all on your own. If you’re anything like us, you wouldn’t know where to start and become frustrated. CBT provides the skill to navigate and conquer complex issues. It provides concrete, helpful tactics that can be applied to any problem.

CBT is based on the fact that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors all influence each other. For example, if a person thinks “I am a failure,” then their emotions will be affected, and it’s likely they will feel upset, defeated, sad, or a number of other negative emotions. As a result of these feelings, their behavior is affected, and they withdraw from other people. Once they isolate, they may start to feel lonely and worse about themselves. These feelings cause them to think “Not only am I a failure, but no one likes me.” In the figure below, we can see the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Due to the physiology of our brains, we can’t just stop ourselves from feeling negative emotions when they come up. We have to affect negative emotions through other means. Those other means in CBT are thoughts and behaviors. If we make changes to our thinking and we make changes to our behavior, our feelings will be different.