By Dr. Francisco Martinez, Psychologist in Barcelona
Cognition is a difficult concept to define. It can be summarized as the set of abilities that allow us to understand the world and process all the information it presents to us. However, we don’t always receive this information correctly.
Our experiences always shape our perception of things; our thoughts are always tied to how we process information. The result is that we don’t truly know a situation or object as it appears before us, but we connect it to our past experiences, risking distorting it and affecting us emotionally. However, this can be changed with the right techniques.
How can we change our thinking through cognitive-behavioral therapy? This is what a technique called Cognitive Restructuring addresses.
What is Cognitive Restructuring?
Cognitive restructuring is a psychological therapy technique that focuses on shaping and changing negative thinking or thought patterns that are harmful to the patient and, at the same time, deteriorate their quality of life and the way they perceive things around them.
Cognitive restructuring is among the most feasible and effective psychotherapeutic techniques in cognitive-behavioral psychology. It’s not just about shaping a pattern that’s been present in an individual for years, but rather identifying and recognizing those patterns before beginning to rework them.
This, consequently, makes cognitive restructuring a bit more complex than commonly thought. However, when this technique is used correctly and the patient adapts to it, it is possible to acquire a new approach to integrating one’s experiences.
The cognitive restructuring technique and its three phases
This technique works in three stages based on the same roots as the cognitive behavioral current.
This technique works in three stages based on the same roots as the cognitive behavioral current.
The first moment contemplates the experiences an individual goes through. A second moment concerns how people conceive of these experiences, how they interpret them, and how they somehow make them their own. How one thinks about what one has experienced influences the final and third moment, which is when the individual reacts and acts upon the experience.
This is how cognitive restructuring takes an irrational idea or belief from an individual that affects the subject’s mental health and shapes it so that, rather than being harmful and negative, it becomes beneficial for the person.
The contribution of Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis
Cognitive restructuring is based on the research of psychiatrist Aaron Beck and psychotherapist Albert Ellis. With cognitive therapy, Aaron Beck fulfilled the first stage of cognitive restructuring: identifying the harmful thought, the trigger that causes this irrational belief to influence the patient and, at the same time, hinder their quality of life. However, according to Beck, it was the experiences or traumas experienced that caused individuals to react in certain erratic ways.
In contrast, Albert Ellis, with his rational emotive therapy, argued that irrational beliefs depended not only on the patient’s experiences, but also on how the individual perceived and conceived things. Therefore, the root of disintegrated thinking arose from the individual’s own concepts of the situation or problem being experienced.
Harmful and irrational thoughts
There are two questions people often ask themselves when they become aware of their harmful thoughts and the negative effects they can have on them.
How did this harmful thought arise in me? Why can’t I control it?
Mental plasticity is a quality we all possess, to varying degrees, of course, depending on our level of emotional openness and our disposition when absorbing information from the outside world. The problem arises when we acquire incorrect information or knowledge without any logical foundation.
Such knowledge is the sum of a received concept and the individual’s perception of that concept. This means that the foundation of that individual’s concept will be distorted and based on their emotions. However, while emotions help individuals recognize themselves and their environment, this does not mean they are the only factor to consider when making decisions.
So how do we form our harmful thoughts?
All depends on your perception of your environment, that is, on the concepts and terms that are part of your reality. This gives rise to negative thinking that causes the individual to behave apathetically or defensively. We see examples of this every day, negative extremes like “Everything bad happens to me,” people who have a strange need to possess everything, and if they don’t have everything they want, then they simply have nothing. The most common example is people who project themselves onto others and wish those around them would think and act like them.
What can make cognitive restructuring difficult isn’t the technique itself, as it’s relatively simple to understand. The difficulty lies in the deep rooting of distorted thoughts in the patient’s life. Often, the patient identifies their irrational thoughts, recognizes how they feel when they think them, and how they impact their quality of life; however, they completely surrender to those irrational thoughts without wanting to get rid of them.
We often don’t want to accept that some thoughts or beliefs that have accompanied us throughout our lives are harmful.
In the context of therapy
For reactions like those described above, the psychotherapy process can become complicated. However, cognitive restructuring is so effective that many psychologists continue to use it to address certain destructive thought patterns.
Although, at times, patients present in therapy with whom it’s difficult to establish a therapeutic relationship—that is, patients who find it difficult to convince them that it’s better to rethink issues they’ve taken for granted—this doesn’t mean it’s not impossible. With a good plan of action and a willingness to engage in psychotherapy, it becomes possible.
The importance of writing down our daily lives
Ideally, the patient should keep a record of their thoughts and emotions, as well as their behaviors and daily interactions with their surroundings. Although this technique relies on action, emotion, perception, and reaction, this does not mean it is not directly intertwined with the individual’s social evolution.
This means that when applying cognitive restructuring, the therapist must focus not only on identifying emotions and irrational ideas, but also on understanding the patient’s everyday behaviors. To use this psychological technique therapeutically, it is necessary to assume that every time one tries to shape a thought pattern, one is also trying to change behaviors.
So, if you’re one of those people whose thoughts take away or affect the quality of your life, don’t be afraid to seek psychological therapy, because even when you think your problems have no solution, with the necessary help you can resurface.
Original source of the article: https://psicorelacional.com/it/ristrutturazione-cognitiva-che-cose/
Photocredit: Switzer Counselling.Ca
