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Discussion Board on Cognitive behavioral
therapy 510
Theories Of Counseling (Liberty University)
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1. Helen identifies the automatic thought “he will resent me,” and Dr.
Lundgren extends this thought to include “and it will be horrible if he
resented you.” What other automatic thoughts can you identify?
Explain which of the 3 automatic thought types each thought relates
to. How would you work with these thoughts?
–Automatic thoughts: result of our core and intermediate beliefs – swift, evaluative
statements or images
▪Three types (Judith Beck, 2011)
–Distorted thoughts contrary to objective evidence
–Accurate, but conclusion is distorted
–Accurate, but dysfunctional
Her week was ok not good but medium
Situation- Hi sally- thoughts on she is mad at me-
Emotional response-anxious worried
Behavioral- I wont ever speak to her, should I call
her Thoughts-emotions-actions is my thought
accurate Taking class would be dumb
Anxiety asking husband to watch kids and anxiety
Because she already has a master degree she feels the weekend may be a waste of time
On the other hand she feels she needs a kick start
He will resent me- mind reading, some emotional, catastrophizing (horrible if he resented you,
didn’t watch kids)
Some evidence that he dosent want to watch kids, an inposition.
Is there and alternative explination-maybe he has something to do that he need to get done
What is the worst that could happen, he could say no or be mad at me. Held it over my head,
lingering, thing, could I live through it, well yes I could
What could be the best response-he would be happy for me
What would you tell a friend if they were telling you the same scenario?
Having gone through these questions do you still believe what you are feeling
We don’t know how your husband will respond
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Lets come up with a solution to the problem, have other family members watch kids
How would you approach him to watch the children
Where would you do it? How would you say it to him?
Role play asking the question
I would suggest
Explain to him your desires
Need his help- ask for it ask, for his support
Be vulnerable
Be aware of thoughts
Explore thoughts
Look at One automatic thought process per day
Ask husband to help with kids
How she felt after session. She felt good, she sounds a little more confident.
During Helen’s session it becomes clear that she holds many faulty schemas. According to
Murdock (2017) schemas influence the retrieval of information and they contain emotional
components and core beliefs. Helen’s train of automatic thoughts are clearly part of her schemas.
In her comment about her husband being a “jerk” I think that this way of thinking is part of her
issue with her husband. This form of thought may be accurate based on her previous experiences
with him but it is also highly dysfunctional. She was not even sure if he would be resentful.
From what I heard her saying I believe that she reads a lot into what her husband says and does.
She does not ask him why he reacted the way he does, she just assumes that he was resentful, but
after articulating it she was unsure that this is really how he would feel.
Another automatic thought that Helen was articulating is in the way she would ask her question
to her husband. “I know you don’t want to do this but..” she is setting him up to be defensive and
sabotage what she really wants. Here her automatic thinking is accurate but distorted. As the
counselor is asking her to picture where she is asking him and how she would rephrase the
question by her body language of fidgeting with the pen you can see she is anxious. As a
counselor I would ask if she was anxious and then explore where that anxiety is coming from. In
an article by Hope et.al. (2010) they found that in counseling anxious clients the counselors often
did not explore the client’s anxiety. I see the counselor moving to fix the problem and give
homework rather then work on the source of emotions.
Another automatic thought that Helen said is that her husband would hold this request, of
taking care of the kids, over her head. I see this as a distorted thought contrary to objective
evidence.
She has a lot of assumptions based on her schema towards her husband. As a counselor I would
want to explore what her thought about her husband is. I see Helen as having a stereotype
about herself from her mother and father, children are an inconvenience, therefore she was an
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inconvenience. Stereotype threat is believing and confirming a negative stereotype about oneself
which produces anxiety (Murdock, 2017). She had to be the good girl, dad did not have time for
her and maybe she is thinking this about her husband. This is what I feel the counselor needs to
explore with Helen as she tries to change her schema about her husband and possibly how fathers
feel towards their children.
References
Hope, D. A., Burns, J. A., Hayes, S. A., Herbert, J. D., & Warner, M. D. (2010). Automatic
Thoughts and Cognitive Restructuring in Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for
Social Anxiety Disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 34(1), 1-12.
http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/s10608-007-9147-9
Murdock, N. L. (2017). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A case approach. (4th ed).
Pearson.
Hi Katrina,
Thank you for taking the time to post a thorough discussion and give an example of what
socializing the client looks like. I liked your comparison with an informed consent. I can see the
benefit of setting clear outlines of what the counselor is doing and going to do with the client.
Cognitive therapy is extremely structured. As you pointed out the counselor went through the
steps of socializing the client. However, I do not feel that the counselor asked enough questions
to see how Helen was doing. In the text by Murdock (2017) she suggests that the counselor ask
the client (Helen) what the most important thing that was learned in today’s session would be. It
seemed like there was a lot of trying to move Helen to an action resolution rather than hear how
she felt or what she thought. It appears that the counselor needs to get through the three phases
rather than hear what the client has to say. It looks like a process to “fix” Helen and force her to
face her fear and ask her husband the question to take care of the kids.
References
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Murdock, N. L. (2017). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A case approach. (4th ed).
Pearson.
Cognitive therapists believe that it is important to socialize the client to therapy. What are
some examples of this goal in the session? How effective do you believe this technique was?
Would you have done anything differently
Cognitive therapy centers around being able to understand our
thoughts and feelings to express behaviors from those thoughts. In Helen's
situation, the one technique that the psychologist focused on was cognitive
restructuring, where they took dysfunctional beliefs to try and make them
more on the practical side. In this way, they had made sure to hit the
thoughts that were making certain negative behaviors in herself and others.
However, one other technique that I think the therapist could have
used in this session for Helen was Mindfulness practice. The way that
mindfulness happens is by reading our focus on what is present and
happening rather than consuming over negative thoughts. The way that we
do this is by developing more profound levels of stability through transversal
scanning. "Being calm and clearheaded, it becomes easier to communicate
with others about conflictual topics we know are likely to produce unhelpful
attitudes." (Cayoun, 2015, p. 215) In Helen's case, confronting her husband
about watching the kids could be improved with some mindfulness.
Lastly, another technique that would be good in Helen's case but still
fall under CBT would be social skills training, which according to Murdock,
2017 is based on the fact that an extension of behaviorism social skills
promotes "harmonious and productive interactions" with people. Helen
wants to bring up the idea that she should take the weekend classes but
does not fully know how to communicate in the right way to be productive
with her husband. Using this skills training could be helpful in the way that it
lets Helen develop skills to function in all types of these social
understandings.
I hope to do these techniques with Helen; I help her understand the
thoughts and behaviors that she is having when translating to words that
might affect her husband.
That although her feelings are valid, there might be a sense of dysfunction
that could become a toxic verbalization of it later on. Knowing that the goal
of CBT is to understand these thoughts so we can later change the behavior
would be beneficial in Helen's case.
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Hello Abigail,
I like your suggestion in helping Helen be calm and clear headed as she communicates
with her husband. I read that you want to help her understand her thoughts and behaviors. One
of her thoughts that stood out to me is when she called her husband a “jerk”. The counselor did
not explore that comment which I believe has something to do with Helens emotions and actions
towards her husband. In our text by Murdock (2017), it says that one of the most prominent
techniques of CT is questioning. I believe that one of the qualities of an effective counselor is
that we must find the right questions and always have a curiosity that leads to the right path of
helping our client. I believe that by Helen being questioned on her view of her husband that she
might have a different view (or at least an awareness), of her husband, once they had addressed
her opinion of her husband. Thank you for your post. I think you have effective ideas on helping
Helen.
Murdock, N. L. (2017). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A case approach. (4th ed).
Pearson.
