Most traditional psychotherapy is of this type. The fundamental theory is that mental illness and suffering is due to wrong thinking and acting and that if we change these we will feel better. For instance, many people have “cognitive distortions” and automatic negative self-talk. This can undermine self- esteem and life effectiveness. From a CBT perspective, the solution is to straighten out the cognitive distortions, stop the negative self talk and replace it with more balanced self talk. This same kind of direct approach can be applied to external behavior, where we change by rewarding the target behavior and noticing and stopping the “bad” behavior.
In my experience, this is a great starting point. The difficulty is with changing. Many people are aware that they have bad habits of thinking and acting and still are not able to change. That is where the other tools I bring to counseling, including NLP, Hakomi, parts work and Energy Psychology really shine. They make the actual change easier to accomplish.
To experience the power of this integration in resolving your life challenges, contact me today!