Mastering Mental Wellness: Explore the 11 Most Common and Effective CBT Techniques for Enhanced Mental Health

Many of us struggle with several psychological issues, such as anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders at different points in our lives. There are numerous treatment approaches to get rid of these conditions, one of those being the CBT techniques or cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT is used as the most common tool for psychological therapy in enhancing our mental health.

This article will help you know about the 11 most common and effective CBT techniques for better mental health.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment through which people learn how to identify and change their disturbing or destructive thought patterns that could have a negative influence on their emotions, behavior, and overall life.⁽¹⁾ Feelings of distress can ruin your positive thoughts. However, cognitive behavioral therapy employs several strategies to overcome them.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) combines cognitive therapy and behavior therapy by identifying maladaptive thought processes, emotional responses, or behaviors and altering these patterns with more desirable patterns.⁽²⁾

The 11 most common and effective Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques for better mental health are listed below.

1. Cognitive Restructuring and Reframing

This CBT technique involves taking a strong look at our negative thought patterns. Sometimes we tend to assume the worst will happen to us, or pay more importance to minor details. Such a way of thinking affects what we do.

To come out of this thinking process, one needs the assistance from an expert psychotherapist. The therapist will ask about our thought process in specific situations so that the negative thought patterns can be identified. Once, we are aware of these negative thought processes, we can learn various ways to reframe those negative thoughts into more positive and productive ones.

2. Journaling

Journaling helps in improving moods and thought processes.  This CBT technique is all about journaling your moods and thoughts, including the time of the mood, the trigger for it, the intensity of the mood, and how you react to it. This technique aids you in understanding your thought patterns and helps in improving the patterns.

This is a CBT technique that can be practiced on your own without the assistance of any therapist. To begin with, you should identify which distortions you suffer most. It is a part of identifying and challenging harmful thoughts. Some of the most common cognitive distortions include:

Filtering: It means focusing primarily on the negative and ignoring all the good or positive things in life. Even if someone is enriched by plenty of positive things, they get trapped in a single negative thing or situation.

Overgeneralisation: This cognitive distortion is about taking a little incident or cause as evidence, and resonating it to a broader conclusion.

Jumping to Conclusion: This is similar to overgeneralization. This type of cognitive distortion involves resonating conclusions with faulty reasons. This is something where we become certain about something without any valid evidence. For instance, you might be thinking somebody dislikes you without having any clear evidence.

3. Guided Discovery

Guided discovery is another type of CBT technique that helps in improving your mental health. Here, the therapist acquaints themselves with your viewpoint. Then they ask certain questions designed to challenge your beliefs and open up your thinking.

Your therapist would ask you to provide evidence that supports your assumption, and also evidence that does not. This way, you will learn to see things from other perspectives. Ultimately, this will help you choose a more beneficial path.

4. Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is used to confront phobias and fears. The therapist slowly exposes you to various things that provoke anxiety and fear in you, while guiding you on several ways to cope with them in the moment. Eventually, exposure can make you feel less vulnerable and more confident and help you cope with your fear and phobias.

5. Activity Scheduling and Behavior Activation

Sometimes we avoid certain activities because of our fear and anxiety. Activity scheduling and behavior activation can play a crucial role here. Getting the activity (that you tend to avoid) on your calendar can help. Activity scheduling helps in establishing good habits and offers ample opportunity to put what you have learned into practice.

6. Behavioral Experiments

This type of CBT technique is used for anxiety disorders involving catastrophic thinking. Before embarking on an activity that usually makes you anxious, your therapist will ask you to predict what will happen. Later, you will talk about whether your prediction came true.

Gradually, you would start seeing that the predicted catastrophe is not likely to happen. You will have to start with lower anxiety tasks and then gradually build up from there.

7. Role Playing

Role-playing is another common and effective CBT technique for better mental health. This CBT technique helps you prepare for a situation where you have anxiety.

In role-playing, you have to enact the same behavior that you will soon encounter to get yourself ready to face it in a real environment. This technique will help you prepare for a difficult situation and enhance your behavioral and thought patterns to cope with a phobia or fear.

8. Play the Script Until the End

This CBT technique helps those who are suffering from anxiety and fear. You will have to go through a sort of experiment in which you will visualize the outcome of the worst case. This will make you stronger by perceiving that if any fearful situation comes out, it could be manageable.

9. Successive Approximation

Successive approximation is a CBT technique that involves doing activities that seem overwhelming and breaking them into smaller, and more reachable steps. Each successive step will help you build confidence, bit by bit, and you will be able to achieve success in your work.

10. Progressive Muscle Relaxation

This CBT technique teaches you to relax a particular group of body muscles at a time. Ultimately, it relaxes your whole body muscles. Progressive muscle relaxation calms your nerves and soothes your ever-busy mind.

11. Relaxed Breathing

Relaxed breathing is a technique that brings relaxation and regularity to your breath. This CBT technique allows your mind to approach balanced thinking, thus facilitating more effective decisions. Relaxed breathing helps you get over various kinds of mental illnesses and improves your mental health.

CBT or Cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective type of therapy that is based on connections between your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and how they influence each other. Several CBT techniques are beneficial in improving your mental health. Depending on the type of mental issue that you want to get over with, your therapist would suggest the best possible technique for you.

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• 5 Different Techniques Used with CBT to Achieve Better Mental Health
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