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Thoughts & Feelings

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Thoughts & Feelings

Taking Control of Your Moods & Your Life

New Harbinger,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Your thoughts are not crazy pinballs banging madly around inside your head. You can control them – and your emotions.

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Applicable
  • Well Structured

Recommendation

Making the effort to change their thoughts and emotions is not an easy road for most people – but access to the right tools, techniques and resources can help. Matthew McKay, Martha Davis and Patrick Fanning offer a thorough handbook on using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to deal with such serious emotional problems as panic disorder, phobias, obsessive thinking, depression and more. This workbook is a comprehensive guide to CBT (including worksheets), covering what it is, how it works and how people can use it to restructure their thinking. getAbstract salutes the authors for this valuable manual, and recommends it to people who are wrestling with these issues personally or who want a reference so they can help others who need to regain control over runaway emotions.

Summary

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Are you worried? Anxious? Fearful? Depressed? Do you lose your temper often? One common therapeutic approach for treating such problems is to explore your childhood through extended personal analysis, but an alternative treatment exists: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This direct approach is based on the belief that interpretative thoughts precede hurtful emotions. Say your friend Joe is supposed to call you, but he does not. Your interpretative thought may be, “Joe is tired of being my friend.” You feel rejected, which makes you sad. Or your interpretation may be, “Joe had an accident.” This makes you anxious. If instead you think, “Joe will call later,” you will not be sad or anxious. This demonstrates CBT’s guiding principle: “You can change your feelings when you change your thoughts.”

Events are emotion-free. You try to start your car, but the engine does not turn over. Your interpretative thought: “Uh oh. Problem with the battery. Now I will be late. I’m in big trouble.” Your feeling: anxiety, even mild depression. But what if your interpretative thought was more positive: “I can’t go to work. I might as well sit back ...

About the Authors

Matthew McKay, Ph.D., is the author of numerous psychology books. He is a professor at a clinical -psychology graduate school in Berkeley, California. Martha Davis, Ph.D., a psychologist, and Patrick Fanning, a writer, are also co-authors of other self-help books.

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