Episode 46: The ABC’s of Cognitive Therapy: Identify and Reframe Your Irrational Thoughts, with Dr. Aaron Kaplan

Today I decided to try something different and recorded my first solo episode of Mind Tricks Radio.  While I am eclectic in my approach to clinical psychology, meaning I draw from many different modalities when I work with patients, I find that cognitive therapy techniques can be extremely helpful to the therapeutic process. This episode may be helpful if you're new to cognitive therapy and would like to gain a better understanding on how your thoughts affect your mood. If you've had experience with cognitive therapy, this may be a practical and simple refresher on basic CBT concepts.

In this episode, I talk about the ABC's of Cognitive Therapy, including identifying triggers and events, the thoughts we have about them, and the resulting feelings.  I discuss the concept of "mixed mood states," for which it's therapeutically helpful to tease apart the many feelings we can experience simultaneously. I discuss how to slow down your thinking and identifying how your thoughts are connected to your feelings. I also discuss how to examine your thoughts and evaluate whether they are Rational and/or Functional as a means of reframing and restructuring irrational thinking.

I hope you find the episode to be useful! Please Subscribe to MIND TRICKS RADIO, and Like the episode if you enjoy it. It's also very helpful to leave a good review, I really appreciate it!