BEHAVIORAL EXPERIMENTS are when we try something (we change our behavior) in order to analyze the results. Often this is because we have certain beliefs or predictions about a situation. I.E. "If I go for a long walk on Sunday it's not going to make me feel any better" or "If I apologize to this person I'll look like a fool."
I use behavioral experiments a lot with patients in my practice, and also in my own life!
Behavioral experiments can be fun, and you can keep them very simple. Whatever the results, it's all useful data!
If you have any questions about behavioral experiments and how they work, feel free to reach out to me here.
Very excited to be moving to my new office in the Flatiron district today!
The new address is:
928 Broadway (between 21st and 22nd Streets), Suite 1100, New York 10010.
Change is often a little anxiety provoking for all of us. One tool we can use is known as a "resource". Resources have sometimes been described as a kind of "bat belt" of things we can use to get us out of trouble. One resource I use to help me with change is to think about past situations where there has been a change. I remind myself that even if it was difficult at first, that feeling changes over time. Another resource in this kind of situation would be to do a Thought Record, and try and identify what Cognitive Distortions I might be having.
Intrusive Thoughts are one of the little talked about phenomenons everyday life. We all have them. Thoughts of doing something weird. Or doing something dangerous. The thought of someone we know getting badly hurt, or of ourselves being in a terrible accident. Where intrusive thoughts tend to be problematic is when we assign meanings to them. "Because I had this thought of stabbing someone that means I must really want to do it". "Because pictured some unusual sexual scene; that must mean I'm a deviant". Intrusive thoughts are one of my favorite things to work on using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques. Here's a link to a 35 minute podcast which gives some really great insight into how much pain an intrusive thought can cause. If you're struggling with intrusive thoughts and would like to work on them, please contact me.
What is the difference between traditional (or psychodynamic) therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?
Lets say you went to the doctor with an irritating rash. The first doctor might try to help you find what caused the problem with the hope that it doesn’t keep reoccurring in the future. But while that investigation takes place, you still have the rash and the discomfort. The second doctor might start treating the rash immediately in order to improve the patient’s quality of life. And then work with the patient on investigating what caused it so it doesn’t happen again.
The approach of the first doctor is a little like that of psychodynamic therapy. The second doctor is more like a CBT therapist.
CBT therapists don’t consider past events and family of origin irrelevant. We just believe in getting to work sooner rather than later on the troubling symptoms in order to get the person’s life back to normal as quickly as possible.
