Are you feeling unusually anxious or depressed? Are you dealing with a high level of stress in your personal or professional life? Is it impacting your relationships, sleep, or performance at work? If so, you may want to consider visiting a clinical psychologist and looking into cognitive behavioral therapy or other mindfulness-based behavioral therapy. Fit us into your day — whether it’s your lunch hour or when the kids are at school, get the help you need to treat your anxiety or depression. It can be difficult to balance the demands of a busy life filled with work, kids, and other obligations, so it’s natural for anyone to feel overwhelmed. However, if that stress or anxiety reaches an abnormal level, consider seeing a psychologist and working with cognitive behavioral therapy that can help you develop coping skills personalized to your emotions and situation.
What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Exactly?
This type of therapy uses evidence and research to help a patient figure out coping strategies for their anxiety, depression, or other types of mental disorders like PTSD or eating disorders. It works to figure out answers to the issues that patients are facing and how to change behavior or bad patterns that patients find themselves falling into, whether those are thoughts, perspectives about the situation, or their beliefs. It’s more action-oriented, asking patients to take action to tackle the problem head on and practice tactics to help them do so.
Once a patient understands why an event or situation triggers the anxiety or depression, he or she recognizes the onset, and can hopefully fall back on tactics or procedures discussed during their cognitive behavioral therapy session to lesson the symptoms of the disorder. CBT may also use other mindfulness techniques like meditation to help patients. Indeed, around 60% of people who were prone to anxiety showed significant improvements in managing or decreasing their anxiety levels after six to nine months of practicing meditation.
How Do I Find the Right Therapist?
Making the decision to enter therapy may be a difficult choice for some people and you want to make sure that you feel comfortable with your therapist, as you’ll be discussing highly personal topics at an intimate level. You may rotate through a few different therapists before finding the right one for you, but you can help give yourself a good head start (and potentially your perfect therapist!) by conducting some research beforehand.
Asking friends and family may be tough, but if you have some people you trust in your life who have been through the process before, they’re a great place to start. Discussing therapy with them can also result in a great support system for you.
Checking out any profiles or websites about therapists you’re considering online is also a good way to “screen” them before officially meeting them. You may also feel more naturally comfortable with a specific gender, so don’t discount that feeling.
Calling up several therapists you’re considering is also a good way to connect with them and get a feeling about them. You can get a feel for their background, training, experience, and technique from a phone call. You may ask them what practices they use — this is big if you’re interested in pursuing a specific type of therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy, for example. Obviously if they don’t practice in what you’re looking for, they may not be the right therapist for you. Alternatively, they may be able to offer a solid argument for why you should try a different kind of therapy, so it’s important to have an open discussion.
Let a therapist help you regain control over your life again and reduce your anxiety or depression. Medication isn’t always the answer and tactics learned with cognitive behavioral therapy can often make significant gains in treating anxiety, depression, and other stress-related disorders. Make a healthy choice for your mind, body, and spirit and get in touch with a therapist today.