Peace & Prosperity Podcast
In the Peace & Prosperity Podcast, Jason Phillips, licensed therapist and life coach, shares personal experiences that force you to think deeply about your values, beliefs, and behaviors to ensure you achieve peace, happiness, and success in your life.
Peace & Prosperity Podcast
Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Really Work? - Episode #83
The Peace & Prosperity Podcast is a bi-weekly conversation with Jason Phillips, LCSW, licensed therapist and confidence expert in Raleigh, NC, discussing all things related to self-love and self-confidence, and how we can improve ourselves personally and professionally.
What if you could rewire your brain to conquer fear and self-doubt? In this episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast, we explore the transformative power of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). From Jason's grad school days to real-life applications, he shares how CBT helps identify and reframe core beliefs that fuel anxiety and negative emotions. Learn practical strategies to foster healing, manage challenges like cravings, and create meaningful change in your life. Tune in for insights on why CBT remains a cornerstone of Jason's therapeutic approach! Plus, remember to join our podcast community—like, share, subscribe, and let us know what topics you want us to cover next. Engage with us, send a DM, or leave a review. Let's continue this journey towards peace and prosperity together.
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Website -https://www.jasonlphillips.com
To book Jason to speak to your team or organization:
https://peaceprosperitycoaching.hbportal.co/public/660d8068c9d2d600253b215b/1-Inquiry
Welcome back to another episode of the Peace and Prosperity podcast, and today we're going to be diving into one of my favorite types of therapy. We're going to be talking about CBT Cognitive Behavior Therapy and why it works when you're dealing with fear of failure, self-doubt, any type of negative mindset. I'm always going to go to CBT when I'm working with people, whether that's an individual or a group setting. Now we've talked about CBT before on the podcast, which stands for cognitive behavioral therapy. If you're not familiar with it, ask your therapist about it, do some research or look. Just stay to the end of the episode, because I'm going to break down what CBT looks like and how it is helpful and applicable when you're trying to work on healing certain areas of your life. Now I'll say first I'm a fan of CBT because this is the therapy that I was raised on.
Speaker 1:When I was first in grad school, that was one of my favorite classes. We had a class on CBT where it was pretty dope. There was one class they were learning how to practice CBT and we were learning we had to be the client. So our whole class was developed on developing the client, their backstory, what treatment would work and why it wouldn't work and we would pair up with the other class, which were the therapists, and then they would practice on us. What was really great about that experience is developing this person, my person. His name was Calvin. He lived at home, he was like 25, I think, going through certain challenges. So certain recommendations that the therapist would throw out to Calvin so he would no longer be depressed. I'm like, look, that's not going to work for Calvin. You telling Calvin to go exercise Calvin doesn't have money for a gym membership, so make the exercises really practical for him. Or you were telling Calvin to do this on a weekend go out, have fun. All these things cost money. Calvin didn't have that and it was really helpful because it let me know, even as an early clinician when you're prescribing certain homework assignments for your clients, you got to make sure that they can actually do them, or you mess up the therapeutic rapport. They won't trust you. They'll feel like you don't get them because you're telling me to do something that right now I don't have the means to do.
Speaker 1:Now, even going deeper, why I love CBT is because it looks at how our thoughts, how our feelings and how our behaviors are all intertwined, and then you throw the environment in there too, because our environment plays a role, and this was really impactful when I started to work, not just in mental health but in substance abuse as well, because often our thoughts of cravings or withdrawals is driving our behavior to go use or abuse whatever substance or behavior we're trying to curb. So, yeah, I'm very much prone to CBT, I do like it, I believe in it wholeheartedly. That's not to say that other therapies don't work, but this one I've proven success with. So let's look at some of the basics of CBT and how it can be impactful. One CBT helps you identify your thoughts. So what are some of these thoughts that you're having on a day-to-day basis that could be increasing your anxiety?
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, when you look at some of these thoughts, we can even go deeper. Look at the core beliefs. You may have certain thoughts like I'm not good enough, or I'm I won't ever be good enough. I can't do this. I don't feel like doing that. These people are judging me. What if people find out I'm not as good as who I say I am?
Speaker 1:All of these thoughts, if you break them down, they come with feelings on the other side of that.
Speaker 1:So I'm not good enough.
Speaker 1:How do you feel when you have that thought?
Speaker 1:Maybe sad, depressed, anxious, hopeless. Or what if people find out about me? Okay, let's take that a little bit deeper. What are they going to find out? They'll find out. I'm not who I say I am. So now you feel embarrassed, ashamed, guilty, afraid, like come on y'all.
Speaker 1:You see why I love CBT? Because we get a chance to pair how we think, or how we're thinking, our thought patterns, directly to how we feel, and then we get a chance to challenge those thoughts. I will say this, though it's not as simple as how I'm making it seem. I mean it is simple, but I don't want you to think that you go into see your therapist and that first session y'all going to start getting right into it and you're going to feel like, oh bet, I got this. No, it takes work, because sometimes we don't know how we think, or we don't know what we think. We know how we feel. Hey, peace and prosperity, family. I want to take a moment to talk about something vital for all organizations Employee wellness. Here's what some of the past organizations have shared about their experiences. Here's what some of the past organizations have shared about their experiences.
Speaker 2:So far, I've learned that my mental health has a huge impact as a leader on my team's health, but also to be looking out for signs that I've already been seeing and learning tips on how I can take those back to help myself as well as my team.
Speaker 3:So I really appreciate Jason because he really put a lot of stuff in perspective for me. I don't get a lot of days off you know what I'm saying so when I do take one off, I feel really, really guilty. It's like, oh my gosh, I got so much to do, but knowing that like hey, it's okay, take a break, be yourself and then come back to this and you'll be better. It's just, it's nice to keep hearing that.
Speaker 2:So that's good, but it was good to see that you know everyone has burnout things like that, and also just learning how to deal with it more effectively. Be yourself, love yourself, and other people are going to love you too. Like regardless. And workplace is not just workplace, this is family. He was a great speaker. Yeah, probably one of the best ones that I've seen so far.
Speaker 1:If you're interested in investing in your team's mental health, visit jasonlphillipscom or visit the link below, and let's talk about creating a thriving work environment for your organization.
Speaker 3:Now back to the episode.
Speaker 1:Another reason why so that's the one reason why I like CBT is because you get a chance to identify those thoughts, those core beliefs. Another reason is we get a chance to challenge these thoughts. Now this is where things get a little bit dicey, because sometimes we'll have a feeling and then we'll look at the thought behind that feeling and then we feel like, oh, that's because I feel it and my feeling is valid. So that means my thought is true? Nah, but see, it don't really work like that. I feel it and my feeling is valid. So that means my thought is true? Nah, but see, it don't really work like that. I wish it did. But just because you have the thought does not mean that that thought is actually factual. So with CBT we get a chance to really break that thought down, dissect it and look at what is the what's the part of that thought that is true, and then what's the thought that needs some more work? Or are we adding some pieces on here to make it true? Have we had experiences where, yes, in this instance, maybe I wasn't good enough, maybe I didn't make the right decision, but that's not the entirety of my life. See, what happens is we'll take one thought and we'll lump it in to the rest of our situation.
Speaker 1:Another thing with CBT we call them cognitive distortions, where we start to look at, you know, patterns of how we're thinking. We call them automatic negative thoughts. So there's oftentimes where we're jumping to conclusions, meaning we know what's about to happen, or we think we know what's about to happen before it happens. Or we engage in all or nothing thinking, meaning it's gotta be that way or I can't do it. Y'all, we can't. We can't keep showing up like that. I use myself as an example. There were times where I feel like if I don't have all of the things that I need to produce the podcast and I just can't produce. Is that true? No, because you can get value whether you're watching on YouTube or whatever platform, or whether you're listening. But I had to get out of my own head and that all or nothing thinking, thinking things had to be perfect in order to add value.
Speaker 1:The last piece that I will say when it comes to CBT is really being able to break down the origin of some of these thoughts. Now, this is where we start to look at different traumatic experiences that we've had, different things that people have told us and we've held on to it. And then what's happened after that? How do our behaviors start to emulate what we think Meaning? Maybe you grew up and somebody told you hey, you're not going to be that smart, so you don't need to think about college. So what happens? You get out of high school and you automatically start working and you always keep that thought in the back of your head I can't go to college. Where does that come from?
Speaker 1:Oh, you know, so-and-so said that when I was younger, or I overheard my mom excuse me, I overheard my mom talking down about me before and I believed that or my dad wasn't around and somebody told me I was going to be just like him, and I believe that. So our behavior started to play off of how we you know what we've heard, what we've downloaded, and we believe these things to be true, and we actually end up making them true because we have not identified that this is the like, this is the blueprint or the roadmap that we're operating from, and now we end up with this life Y'all. Let me tell you this you have the power to change the trajectory of how you're living your life. Are you going to have a fixed mindset where everything that's been told to you or that you say you don't challenge it. Or are you going to be in the growth mindset that you say you don't challenge it? Or are you going to be in the growth mindset where you say you know what? Yes, I've heard this, but I'm going to prove this person wrong. Or, yes, this happened to me, but I'm going to work to heal from that wound or to change that experience and how it impacts me. This is why I love CBT, because we get a chance to break down how we feel, how we think and how we behave, which ultimately looks like how we live our life.
Speaker 1:Y'all, if you haven't already, I would explore CBT with your therapist, ask them about it if they're trained in it, or do some research on your own. It takes time, but I'm telling you this it's most definitely worth it. All right, y'all, be blessed. Peace. Thank you all for listening to another episode of the Peace and Prosperity Podcast. Again, if you are feeling like, hey, I'm experiencing high functioning anxiety, don't beat yourself up about it. It is okay. We all experience anxiety from time to time and I gave you a couple of things that you can do on your own, but don't hesitate to reach out to a professional to better manage what you're going through. Okay, and lastly, make sure, if you have not like, share, subscribe to the podcast and send this out to a friend, and if you want to hear certain episodes or have certain conversations, let me know. You can shoot me a DM or just leave a review and I will definitely follow up. All right, y'all Be blessed, peace.