Cognitive behavioral therapy is not something that you try on yourself. It’s just not going to happen. You have to work with a trained therapist or counselor. While you do the heavy lifting as far as your personal beliefs and your responses to the outside world go, you need expert guidance. You need somebody who knows what they’re doing and who knows how to instruct you. They must have been around the block a few times so they know what to anticipate. 

This is one common misconception about cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT for short. A lot of people think that if they just listen to a book on CBT, they will know the ins and outs of this alternative therapy system, and they can pretty much treat themselves. 

There’s more to recovery through CBT than just buying a book and learning techniques. You have to actually put them to use. This is the difficult part. You have to keep using these techniques no matter how inconvenient they might be. You have to keep practicing them no matter how busy you get. 

It’s very hard to get out from under your mental habits if you are trying to do CBT alone. You need to be under the proper guidance of an experienced therapist who not only understands how it works and how its principles can be tweaked to apply to your personal situation, but who also knows how to measure success. 

You have to understand that this is a results-based therapy. You don’t just undergo CBT because you’re just trying to “feel better". Who knows what that means? It’s too subjective. 

When you are working with a trained cognitive behavioral therapist, you are made aware of how your interpretations of the things happening in your life impact your feelings, your interpretation of reality, and ultimately, your behavior. The main goal of cognitive behavioral therapy is not just to feel good or feel at peace. Medication can do that. Being with the right people can do that. 

Instead, CBT aims for something higher. It seeks to teach you how to effectively interpret life in such a way that you remain positive, empowered, and in control. In other words, with the proper guidance, CBT can help you handle your life in a very different way. 

People normally seek cognitive behavioral therapy if they feel that their life is spiraling out of their control. They feel that they’re stuck. It’s as if they’re watching a movie of their life, and they can’t do anything about it except sit back and let things happen. 

When properly implemented, cognitive behavioral therapy enables you to reclaim your personal power over your life. Believe it or not, everything that happens in your life is ultimately your responsibility. 

A lot of people try to run away from this truth. In fact, to a lot of people, this is quite inconvenient and uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, regardless of how we feel, the truth is still the truth. We are always in control of how we respond to the world and this response is never neutral. It always has an impact on what we feel and, ultimately, what we do. 

Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on how people make sense of their world in terms of their interpretation. This is the foundation of cognitive behavioral therapy.