CBT FOR ANXIETY

Psycho-Education (crumble paper Game)

Who believes that emotions come out of the blue.

Who believes that strong emotions are impossible to control.

Who has felt powerless when faced with strong emotions like anxiety and anger.

it’s not really true that our feelings come out of nowhere. Any time something happens
to us, all day long, we have a thought about it.

It’s our thoughts that tell us how we should feel about what’s going on.

Most of the time, this process works great and our thoughts let us make accurate judgment
calls about situations. But sometimes, overly negative thoughts might lead us to feel anxious
when we don’t really need to be.

The cognitive triangle is a map that shows how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
all connected to each other.

Our thoughts tell us how to feel, our feelings influence how we act, and then our actions
play a big role in how we see the world

Different people can have the same experience, but end up feeling and acting different ways
based on their thoughts. For example, a child who loves animals might see a dog sitting
on the sidewalk and think “Cute, I love dogs!”. This would make her feel excited and
happy. She might walk up to the dog and pet him.

Another child who was bitten by a puppy in the past might see the same dog and think “Oh
no, he could bite me!”. That would make him feel anxious and afraid. He’d probably cross
to the other side of the street to avoid getting near the dog.

So there is no one “right” way to respond to a situation.

Notice the vicious cycles that sometimes form when a person is anxious. For example, if
the boy in the story above keeps avoiding every dog he sees, he will never get the chance to
learn about all the friendly dogs that exist in the world. He may just keep on fearing dogs
forever.

CBT Topic #2: Thoughts or Actions Can Change Feelings

Our thoughts, feelings, and actions are all connected, which means that changing one
of those things changes the others.
It’s pretty hard to change a feeling: It’s easier to change our thought or change our actions,
and deal with the anxiety that way.

learning how to spot worries and turn them into something more useful.

Change your actions by learning coping skills to relax your body and focus on something
besides your worries. Either way, she’ll be helping herself to shrink her anxiety down, or
turn it into a more helpful feeling to have.

CBT Topic #3: Talking Back to Worries ( cognitive restructuring)

In CBT, kids learn a process to change their thoughts called “cognitive restructuring.” –also
known as “talking back” to thoughts. To practice this technique,

 First need to get skilled at noticing when you having a worry

Who can tell me how you know you are worrying (Physical, emotional)

 Next, learn how to determine whether or not their worry is realistic or not—usually,
it isn’t! What if I fail
 Finally, come up with something that is more helpful and realistic you can say to
themselves instead. “I have been working so hard this time, I have not failed in
the past, I can do this”

You don’t have to believe everything your worries tells you.

CBT Topic #4: The Feelings Remote Control

I often use this “remote control” analogy when I’m talking about coping and relaxation
skills with kids.

 Activities like deep breathing,

 muscle relaxation,

and guided visualization (imagine your happy place) are one way that we can change our
behavior in order to improve our mood.

When we’re hit with a really intense emotion, sometimes focusing on it

(overthing/ruminating) just makes it get worse.

going over their worries again and again, which magnifies them.
Coping skills work like a remote control that helps you to “change the channel you’re
your feelings by shifting them into another emotional state. You can also work to “turn the
volume down” on an intense emotion, to make it more manageable.

Relaxation skills like breathing and muscle relaxing can help turn down the volume,
while music, exercise, can help to change the channel.