My decades of experience have taught me that “a brave space” for personal and interpersonal growth and change is better than “a safe space.”

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a method of psychotherapy/counseling, which focuses on a person’s thoughts, feelings and behavior with respect to the issues that bother them. It is research-based and applicable to most mental health issues.

CBT assumes that a distressed person thinks about problematic situations in ways that generate negative feelings and behavior that result in unwanted outcomes. Often, today’s problems today result from trying to solve them with beliefs, attitudes and behaviors learned during childhood and adolescence.

The goal of CBT is to correct cognitive distortions to permit more adaptive, healthy and goal-achieving responses in the presence of stressors.

The folks who get good results from CBT are able to tolerate examining and, possibly changing, their beliefs and assumptions. They are willing to experiment with new behaviors that (just might) achieve the results they want.