What is Cognitive Therapy

The ABC of Thinking, Feeling and Behaving

It is not the event itself, but rather how you interpret it at the particular moment, that determines how you feel. The process is illustrated in the following story:

Imagine that you are standing up on a bus and someone bumps into you from behind resulting in you plunging into the lap of an unsuspecting passenger. Your immediate reaction may be one of anger provoked by thoughts such as:

What a fool. He should be more careful. I shouldn't have to put up with this.

The reality of that moment, as you see it, is that you have been mistreated. if you then discover that the person who bumped you is blind, your feelings may alter. The situation is the same, but your perceptions and interpretations have changed. Your attitude towards blind people will probably allow you to be more sympathetic and reduce your anger at being pushed.

A Events are situations which you react to, such as being criticised by your partner, not finding what you are looking for, being asked by your boss to do extra work, or meeting an old friend.

Imagined events can lead to the same reactions as real events. If you believe something to be true, you you will react as though it were true. Your thoughts alone trigger emotional and physical reactions just as if the event had really occured. The following example illustrates this.

David's wife did not call to say that she would be late home. As time passed the thought came to him that she could be having an affair. Once the suspicion took hold of him, he began to believe that it was true. He felt hurt, rejected and angry and even started planning in his mind how he would retaliate. When his wife arrived home, she told how she had been held up in a traffic jam caused by a serious car accident. David's wife could not understand why he was so upset and angry with her for being late.

B Thoughts are based on personal values and beliefs which you have learnt over time. To become more aware of the meanings you give to events you need to pay close attention to your thinking at the time you become upset. By noticing what you are saying to yourself you will be able to identify particular beliefs that cause unhelpful reactions.

C Reactions are your responses to your thoughts and consist of feelings and behaviour.

Feelings are fundamental to our existance as human beings. Without them we would be boring, bored and mechanical. Feelings are not spontaneous, but arise as a result of the personal meanings given to our experiences. Two salesmen, waiting for an important client who is late for a business luncheon, react according to their individual interpretations. One sees the client's lateness as a sign of disinterest and becomes anxious thinking he will lose the sale. The other stays relaxed, assuming that the client is merely busy and has been inadvertantly delayed.

We often give different labels to feelings depending on their strength. When feelings become intense, it is more difficult, if not impossible, to stay in control of a situation. You may react in ways that you later regret. The scale below shows how feelings are labelled as they develop in intensity from 0-100%

Behaviour, too, is affected by how events are interpreted. The anxiety experienced by the salesman may cause him to behave less confidently towards his client. Alternatively, he may behave more aggressively to ensure that the sale is made.