Take emotional responsibility and master your emotions.
About
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT gives you the tools to master your emotions. Its practical wisdom sets you on the road to emotional responsibility and inner freedom.
In life there are myriad different challenges that we have to face. We can’t always control our circumstances, but CBT shows us that we do have the freedom to control our responses to life’s obstacles. CBT is based on the premise that it is not our circumstances but the thoughts we have about them that create our emotions. When we fully understand this concept, we give ourselves the opportunity to change our thinking and transform our emotional experience. We can choose how we react.
CBT’s creator, Albert Ellis, was heavily influenced by ancient wisdom, drawing on Buddhism, ancient Greek philosophy like Stoicism, and also (more recently) by scientific philosophy. At the heart of all these wisdom systems is the truth that we are responsible for our emotional experience. Mastering this gives us the opportunity to find peace regardless of our circumstances.
The primary tool CBT uses is to teach us to question our thinking. The scientific method is based on the concept of having a hypothesis and then testing it against evidence. CBT uses the same approach to question what we believe by using practical and empirical questions. Questioning our beliefs gives us the opportunity to find the lies and half-truths that we tell ourselves. In reality, most of our stressful thoughts are not actually true, or are just partially true.
CBT is a philosophy that you can apply to all aspects of your life, a system that allows you to take emotional responsibility and find deep inner peace. It can help you in many different ways including:
- Dealing with difficult emotions
- Understanding your emotional world
- Letting go of unhealthy thought patterns
- Finding emotional freedom
Awake takes a contemporary approach to CBT. By fusing ancient wisdom with philosophy and psychology, we have created a new experience of learning and understanding CBT.
8 Week Course
This is an 8-week programme, designed to equip you with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) strategies to help understand and make sense of what can feel like an overwhelming problem. Each week will provide an insight into some of the core areas of CBT enabling you to identify your own stuck points. The programme focuses on the here and now, whilst acknowledging how past events can shape your thinking patterns and behaviours. You will develop skills to identify unhelpful cycles, empowering you to choose how you respond to situations, taking control of your thoughts and actions. Through incorporating these new skills into your life, CBT aims at helping you attain positive change, enabling you to feel more energised and motivated, and prepared to face life stressors.
Week 1: Introduction to CBT, Goals + Managing Low Mood
An introduction to CBT, exploring the interaction between thoughts, feelings, physical symptoms and behaviours. Using this model, you will become aware of the maintaining cycle of low mood and how to intervene.
Week 2: Managing Anxiety
Recognising misinterpretations of anxiety and taking action to find alternative more helpful ways of managing these symptoms through relaxation and distraction. You will also learn to identify and challenge unhelpful thinking patterns.
Week 3: Worry, Rumination + Problem Solving
“What if…?” questions are all too common. If you find yourself preoccupied with future events where the outcome is uncertain, this workshop will provide you with strategies to tolerate the unknown, whilst learning how to manage practical problems, using problem solving training.
Week 4: Self-Esteem
Gain an understanding of how low self-esteem develops and is maintained. Acknowledging life experiences, you will acquire techniques to question self-critical thoughts, whilst learning to appreciate your positive qualities. Using behavioural experiments, perspectives on biased thinking will be highlighted, and alternative behaviours will be tested, revealing how you can live by more flexible guidelines.
Week 5: Perfectionism
Does perfect really exist or is it an illusion we have created? A common consensus maintains that, without aiming for perfectionism, optimum happiness cannot be achieved. If this sounds familiar, let’s put this notion to the test. Striving for perfectionism often fuels further feelings of disappointment. If your high standards are feeling relentless and leaving you exhausted, do you dare to introduce some psychological flexibility into your life? This can be achieved through identifying and challenging perfectionism and testing this newfound flexibility in the real world.
Week 6: Assertiveness
Assertiveness training will empower you to communicate your needs and preferences effectively. Learn to say ‘No’ as a means of self-preservation and self-care. You will learn to recognise the difference between passive, assertive and aggressive behaviours and how to modify your own communication style.
Week 7: Relationships
Explore how we relate to ourselves, others and the world. Recognise relationship myths and develop an awareness to identify unhealthy relational patterns whilst discovering workable ways to cultivate meaningful relationships, showing compassion towards yourself and others.
Week 8: Setting up for the Future
Reflecting on your newly acquired CBT skillset, you will be able to recognise your own triggers and consider which strategies you can use to intervene. Our final week will focus on how to maintain your progress and prepare for setbacks so that you can continue to lead a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Training Class
Our training classes are can be larger group experiences, depending on how many people sign up. They allow you to learn key skills in an online group hosted by our expert therapists . They are a mix of teaching, therapy skills and learning about the different systems and therapies that you can apply to your life. Ultimately we are teaching you new skills so that you can help yourself and deal with the challenges you are facing.
Our training classes are a great way for you to begin your learning experience.
