Our counselors provide therapy in Pflugerville, TX

My go-to approach for helping people in individual therapy is TEAM cognitive behavioral therapy (TEAM-CBT). TEAM-CBT is a framework for conducting measurement-based therapy that is proven to be more effective than traditional therapy. TEAM is an acronym for the four crucial ingredients of effective therapy known to improve treatment outcomes: testing, empathy, agenda-setting, and methods.

TEAM cognitive behavioral therapy (TEAM-CBT) has over 100 different tools for improving mood, changing thoughts, and shifting behaviors. Several of the tools are:

• The Double Standard technique, which is learning to talk to yourself in the same compassionate way you might talk to a dear friend.
• Identifying distortions: Our negative thoughts have some, or even a lot, of truth in them, but they are also full of distortions, exaggerations, or thinking errors.
• Process vs. outcome: Evaluate your performance based on the process—the effort you put in—rather than the outcome. Effort is in your control, outcome is not.

I know a client is making meaningful progress in individual therapy when I see their scores improve on their mood surveys. A key feature of TEAM-CBT is that it uses measurement. There is a pre-session and post-session survey every time we meet. If there is an improvement, we will have the data to back it up.

Clients can supplement their time in individual therapy with psychotherapy homework. Another key aspect of TEAM CBT is psychotherapy homework. If you don't practice what you learn in therapy, it is unlike the change will stick! It is vital for clients to engage in psychotherapy homework, such as outside reading, facing their fears, practicing communication techniques, or writing down and challenging their negative thoughts.

To prepare for your first individual therapy session, you can write down all the potential benefits you hope to see from therapy and all the potential risks or costs of not attending. If you know what you want to move toward and you know the cost of staying the same, then you may be more motivated to make some changes in your life!