About
About CBT+
During the past fifty years, revolutionary changes have occurred in the way psychotherapy and counseling is practiced. We have learned a great deal about what works and what does not. We also know much more about how the neurochemistry and neural networks in the brain and the biome in the gut affect how we feel and think and behave. And we understand better how our sense of self affects our ability to motivate ourselves, change our behaviors, and maintain those changes.
The story of modern therapy starts in 1955. Dr. Albert Ellis developed a new, more effective psychotherapy, currently known as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Basing his approach on Stoicism, he encouraged clients to develop resilience, which he called high frustration tolerance. To do better, people need to learn new ways to manage their thoughts, feeling and behaviors. As a result, modern psychotherapies focus not only on developing insight into problems but also on learning new skills and “tools” to help you help yourself.
In addition, what you do between therapy sessions is equally or perhaps even more important than what happens in session. For many traditional therapists and counselors, the idea that you can do therapy on yourself between sessions is preposterous. Only what happens in session matters. But thousands of people have found that they can work on themselves between sessions. Between sessions, they can practice new skills and gain new insight into how and why they tick.
Subsequently, Dr. Marsha Linehan, the creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) built on Ellis’s ideas. She argued that what she called the “invalidating environment” in childhood and genetic predispositions play a key role in people’s unhappiness. To help her clients, Linehan added many new tools, the key one being mindfulness. DBT encourages clients to push themselves to work hard to change while at the same time accepting their problems and limitations. Using mindfulness, DBT teaches them to develop their “wise mind,” so as to act and feel better.
Following DBT, Dr. Steven Hayes developed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). He called it a “Third Wave” therapy, quite different from the earlier forms of CBT. ACT does not encourage clients to push themselves to change their thinking. Instead, it teaches them to accept their thoughts and feelings and to use “cognitive defusion” and other effective techniques to do so. Many clients find its different approach extremely helpful.
At the same time that a revolution in psychotherapy and counseling was occurring, great strides have also been made in medicine. New medications have been developed which help some people function much better. At the same time, research shows that activities such as exercise and meditation can also affect our neurochemistry and even the structure of our neurological systems without the negative side effects of medications.
This brief history leaves out the creation of over 300 other approaches to psychotherapy, including EFT (Emotion Focused Therapy), MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and CPT (Cognitive Processing Therapy).
CBT+ combines and integrates aspects of older therapies such as Feminist Therapy, Existential Therapy, and Brief Psychodynamic Therapy, and strategies from newer ones, including Trauma-focused Therapy and Attachment-based Therapy. The Adverse Childhood Events (ACE) study clearly showed that what happens in childhood can have a terrible impact on our physical and psychological health and the way we feel and behave.
It is time to move away from “schools” of psychotherapy and counseling toward a single, integrated approach. Schools do not exist in modern medicine. A patient is offered a variety of treatment options. The same should be true in counseling and psychotherapy.
Acceptance and self-compassion are key, and techniques, sometimes called tools, can dramatically help. Meditation may be key for some people while others find doing CBT exercises such as a Cost Benefit Analysis or an ABCDE more helpful. Most people find that they need to use a combination of strategies, including exercise, meditation, and sometimes medication. The goal of CBT+ is to help you find the best combination.
CBT+ involves much more than talking about whatever comes to mind during a session. CBT+ sessions are flexibly structured to ensure that you and I focus on the different goals of each session, which in turn ensures that each and every session is productive. Learning strategies, techniques and tools, not just gaining insight, can help you deal more effectively with life’s challenges. You can learn how to feel better and do better, and how to thrive and fulfill your dreams.
If you think you or someone you know would benefit from CBT+, please contact me.
About F. Michler Bishop
I am an expert at helping people change how they think, feel and behave. I help people find ways to motivate themselves to change and ways to stay on track once they begin. My specialty is addictions, but I see clients with many different kinds of problems, for example, relationship problems, depression, anxiety and procrastination. I help people figure out what they want to do and then how to go about doing it.
During these stressful times, I do phone and video sessions via doxy.me. I look for ways people have helped themselves change in the past and for ways they might be willing to use in the future. I combine empathy and understanding with skillful, mindful techniques to help you feel, think and behave more in line with your personal goals and values.
I trained with and worked closely (for over 20 years) with Albert Ellis, the creator in 1955 of REBT, the first cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). I have been married, divorced and remarried (for over thirty years), and have raised five children in NYC. Reality and practice have been good teachers.