At The Mental Wellness Center, Inc we frequently receive phone calls and emails asking if we facilitate or specialize in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The simple answer is absolutely we do! In fact we are one of a handful of facilities that are trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in the Bloomington, IL area. The complicated answer is it’s really weaved into much of what most of our therapists on staff do in our daily work. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (or CBT) can be such a helpful tool. It can be used alone, or it can be used in conjunction with a variety of other modalities. It is often used to treat a wide variety of mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, peri-mood disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), insomnia, eating disorders, phobias, chronic pain, etc. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can also be an effective tool to guide someone in learning how to better navigate dealing with stressful life situations.

One of the important pieces of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is guiding clients in identifying what they want most out of life and move toward achieving their vision. They learn the skills they need to change their thinking and behaviors in order to create lasting improvement in their mood and functioning as well as their sense of well-being.  

One of the things that our clinicians really value here at The Mental Wellness Center is that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the here and now. Often times therapy gets a bad wrap as being described as “having to talk about the past, and never getting past that.” The Mental Wellness Center receives calls weekly from clients who are frustrated with the therapy process and feel like all they do is talk about what happened in their past. That is one of the things both our clinicians and our clients love about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on present-day struggles and situations. CBT identifies the emotions and circumstances that you are struggling with right here, right now, today, as opposed to things that happened in your childhood or things that happened 15 years ago. That’s not to say our clinicians won’t gather a family history because we will want to know the background but we won’t spend a large amount of time in history. 

Clinicians who practice Cognitive Behavioral Therapy put the emphasis on what the person is telling them that might result in anxiety or create a disturbance. Often times, at this point a person is then encouraged to address rational concerns practically, and to challenge irrational beliefs, rumination or catastrophizing. 

For example, a person who is upset about being single will be encouraged to take concrete measures but also question any undue negativity or unwarranted premise ("I will be alone forever") that they attach to this present-day fact. There are some basic steps in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which include: identifying troubling situations or conditions in your life, become aware of your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs about these problems, identify negative or inaccurate thinking, and reshape negative or inaccurate thinking. 

If you think your life would be made better by engaging in some Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and you reside in the Bloomington, IL area, feel free to reach out to us here at The Mental Wellness Center, Inc. You can read more about our providers here: https://www.thementalwellnesscenter.com/providers

If you would like to schedule an appointment, or if you would like more information,  please feel free to call us at 309-807-5077 or email us at info@TheMentalWellnessCenter.com.