About Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Professional tools for management of anxiety and Panic Attacks and associated eating disorders.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
The Domains of the Mind: “A Model of the Mind”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is based on a model of the Mind.
- The Mind as such does not exist physically in one part of the brain the way for example the balance center (Cerebellum) exists in the brain and coordinates all the functions of balance.
- The Mind exists as a construct or in other words a way of understanding the functions of parts of the brain that have no actual physical location in the brain; the mind does coordinate many important functions from many different parts of the brain.
- The functions that the mind coordinates consist of what could be called “domains.”
The Domains of the Mind: “A Model of the Mind”
- There are basically three domains - thought, emotion (feelings), and actions stemming from thought and feelings; many different parts of our brains work together to function together as the “mind.”
- If you think you are upset about something you will feel upset and you will likely act upset; that all took place in your mind.
- Visualize the mind as three separate, but overlapping circles; one circle is thought; one is emotion (feelings); and one is behavior (what we do as a result of thought or feelings); any one circle can dominate or override any other circle.
- The ability of any one “circle” to override the other two is where CBT derives its strength as a tool for management of anxiety and Panic Attacks; every parent or teacher unknowingly uses CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy when confronting small children engaged in “bad behavior” and tells them “use your words” “stop and think about what you are doing”; that is an example of using thought to control “bad behavior”; the parent is getting the child to use thought to control problem behaviors.
- CBT did not come out of thin air, it comes from naturalistic observations about how we solve problems; it comes from what we call “reverse engineering” what we do when we successfully solve problems so that we can teach people how to use those same tools.
- What works and why it works: for CBT to work several things must occur; read our next module for steps you can take to manage your anxiety.
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