So my therapist is starting me on CBT, I was wondering if anyone else on here can tell what it is like?
I'm pretty sure it varies heavily on the therapist doing it but I can tell you what mine has been like so far. Initially I did a 13 week course where we started learning all sorts of things about 'schema' or core beliefs and things. Apparently there are a whole bunch of different schema and you one or more will apply to you and basically screw your brain. So for example, I think one of them was 'unrelenting standards', so where you would automatically hold yourself to a much higher standard than anyone else and nothing was ever good enough. Another was something about personalisation where every problem you encountered somehow reflected on you! We learned some stuff about how to recognize...what was it...'Seemingly Insignificant...Events?' or something like that. Little things we do because we decided 'whats the harm' even though realistically we know its going to risk throwing us in to depression again. Then after that I was brought in to a new group with the same therapist and now we basically talk about how we've felt in the last week until we find a common theme, like helplessness, and then we work on those sort of feelings. To be honest, it seems a bit weird at times but I like it.
Depends what it's for, but the short answer would be that the therapist will try to get you to look at your beliefs about certain things and situations (schemas, they are called), challenge them, help you come up with new ways of thinking/behaving, and give you tips on how to stay on track with these new ways of thinking/behaving. There's probably a little bit more to it, but I sold my textbook. But this is the basic structure, really. It's not hard at all, she'll guide you through the process. Results are relatively quick to come, and there is excellent research data to back up this approach with many different disorders. It's been one of the most important advances in the field of psychotherapy, IMO. Good luck. And no, you won't have to talk about how your mom toilet-trained you.
CBT is extremely effective for a variety of conditions, things like anxiety, some types of depression, phobias, and the like. It's basically becoming aware of specific behaviors and learning how to identify the patterns and change them. Is your therapist using it for a specific issue?
Agreed. CBT should be really helpful for the self-harm issue. A s for the comparison with others, CBT can be helpful in the short term, but will be more of a band-aid if you don't address the underlying issue (one of my big beefs with the way CBT is used is that it's often touted as a "cure" when it often just suppresses the symptoms, which tend to pop back up again.) So in addition to the CBT, I'd also suggest reading Brené Brown's book "Daring Greatly", as self-comparision is a shame issue and understanding the pieces that go into that will help you a great deal in overcoming that piece.
