Our therapists offer cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in Austin, TX

I use cognitive behavioral therapy to help my clients learn to identify and challenge irrational or negative thought patterns that contribute to their distress. Through exploration of patterns of thinking in sessions and the use of homework assignments, clients gradually learn to replace unhelpful thoughts with more realistic and adaptive ones, promoting healthier emotional responses. By addressing cognitive distortions, CBT empowers individuals to gain greater control over their emotions and behaviors, fostering lasting change and improved mental well-being.

I often use the following therapeutic tools from CBT and other approaches in my eclectic approach to therapy:

• Mindfulness meditation or mindful activity, involves learning to notice when the mind drifts, let go of thinking, and return focus to a predetermined word, phrase, image action, or sensory experience.
• Cognitive reframing is used to explore alternative perspectives.
• Cognitive challenging helps clients question their thoughts and beliefs in order to uncover patterns of thinking that are no longer helpful.
• Cognitive distraction gives clients the ability to move away from intrusive and unwanted thoughts.
• Sensation labeling is a mindfulness technique that assists with disrupting unwanted thinking by focusing on sensory input.
• Strategies for grief processing are used to observe, accept, experience, and release the chaos of emotions that accompany an experience of loss.
• Mental shield imagery develops skills in managing mirror neurons to reduce emotional reactivity to other people's emotions.
• Thinking strategies to address catastrophic thinking and increase confidence in dealing with undesired outcomes should they arise.
• Positive communication skills such as reflective listening, “I” statements, nonviolent communications, and positive behavior support can decrease conflict and increase skills in collaboration.
• Motivation skills reduce procrastination and avoidance.
• Strategies for gaining acceptance of mistakes and letting go of shame and guilt.
• Task partialization to reduce overwhelm and procrastination.
• Imagery and relaxation strategies for pain management and reduction of medical anxiety.

I check in with clients about their progress with their goals and the improvements they are seeing in their symptoms every session. Meaningful progress is evident as the list of progress and successes gets longer and the list of challenges gets shorter.

Clients' efforts to implement the skills they are learning and the goals that they set between sessions are essential to making progress in therapy.

Clients can prepare for therapy by thinking about what they want to achieve, in addition to what it is they want to move away from.