Many people seek me out for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or CBT. If that is a new term for you, let me explain why it is so effective for many mental health issues like anxiety, depression, phobias, ADHD, stress, and more. CBT is a form of counseling that specifically focuses on identifying and changing our thought processes and subsequent feelings (like anxiety and depression) and behaviors. Most people are under the mistaken impression that situations or events cause our feelings. But thank goodness that is not true because we cannot control what we experience, but we can choose our response to what we experience. Most of the thoughts we have lean toward the negative or are unhelpful. Have you noticed? By addressing those underlying thoughts, which are often unconscious, you can now choose how you want to interact and therefore, shift your thinking to experience positive results in your emotions and behaviors.
What is nice about CBT is that it is short-term, goal-oriented, and solution-focused. The purpose is to develop practical coping skills to manage symptoms and challenges by replacing unproductive thought patterns with more realistic and helpful ones. I often tell my clients that they will notice improvements by the third session as long as they are doing their self-help exercises in between sessions.