CBT and beyond made simple

Cognitive-Behavioral-Therapy (CBT) and Mind Power, made simple

By Hugo Rodriguez

Do you often find it difficult to identify your client’s inner intentions – the real motives behind the symptoms? Is it hard to read what your client is thinking subconsciously? Have you noticed that many clients are unwilling or unable or find it tedious to challenge their irrational thinking? Even more important; do you possess a simple structured method to implement Though Stopping Techniques? And perhaps the most advanced of all questions: Do you know the step-by-step technique to visualize objectives and make effective use of mind power? After 16 years of research and elaboration, here is a complete methodology that incorporates the latest advances in CBT and Mind Power to make behavioural therapy simpler, easier and more successful. We call it The Effective Thinking method.

Effective Thinking is a complete guide to identify inappropriate thinking habits, the subconscious reasons for the symptoms, and implement CBT concepts in a concise, well structured Main Strategy that can be applied as a self-help method to all your clients. The Main Strategy is a surprisingly simple, yet scientifically solid method, to identify and treat symptoms by addressing the two most fundamentals questions of life: What do I want? - What am I trying to achieve subconsciously? And, How do I get it? (e.g. Is my depression or anxiety a way to achieve faulty inner goals?)

The Effective Thinking method is based on fourteen Principles, built on a modern outlook of Evolutionary Theory. The Principles help understanding why emotional problems and worry take place, and why these two crucial questions, “What do I want?” and “How do I get it?”, form the backbone of therapy.
In brief, the 14 Principles teach that our only purpose in life is to achieve goals, aimed at fulfilling our evolutionary role of preserving and advancing society – they demonstrate that our destiny is not predetermined and that we are constantly manufacturing our successes or misfortunes through the thoughts we think and the goals we select.
When pursuing our objectives and attending to daily matters, we rely on a natural subconscious goal-achieving mechanism, which manufactures our intentions, our feelings, our beliefs, and the strategies we use to pursue our goals. Our thoughts are of extreme importance; only through thinking we can purposely access and modify this imbedded achieving mechanism. So we can change our life, our personality (we well as influencing the world around us) by changing our thinking habits.
If left unattended, our mind will be subject to negative or undesirable thoughts, which are responsible for much of our failures and unhappiness, as well as for the symptoms your client presents.
Ineffective thinking can also have very undesirable effects on our health and contribute to medical conditions.

Effective Thinking recognizes that the most fundamental question in life is: What do I want?
Don’t be deceived by the apparent simplicity of this question, as it is the primary cause for the failure, worries, difficulties, and preventable hardships people so commonly complain about, as well as for the symptoms your client presents. Your initial task as a therapist always is to identify the inner intentions that are responsible for these symptoms, your client’s hidden motives (The Subconscious “What do I want?”).

Once you have identified the reason behind the symptoms, you are ready to proceed with the second most fundamental question in life: How do I get it? And implement “The Main Strategy”.
The Main Strategy is a general method constructed from the most popular and effective CBT behaviour modification strategies to assist dealing with difficulties by following four main steps, which contain two ancillary strategies. It teaches how to properly identify the need to act or not to act (Step 1), determine the underlying subconscious motives and the intention that should substitute faulty inner drives (Step 2 – What do I want?). Step 3 is to construct “The Best Workable Option” (How do I get it?), which is followed by plan implementation based on “Step Achievement” theory (Step 4).

The Main Strategy is supplemented with two sets of ancillary techniques designed to make use of Mind Power to facilitate achieving selected objectives and resolve symptoms. Mind Power permits modify the context of mental representation in the brain directing the prowess of the natural “Achieving mechanism” towards desirable changes.
The first set of ancillary techniques comprises of six “Thought Stopping Techniques” designed to set up the conditions in the subconscious mind that facilitate using the power of thoughts by first eradicating worry and negative thinking – a simpler and more effective method than attempting to analyse and dispute irrational thinking as suggested by Rational Therapy. It is important to eradicate negative thinking because they distract us from our intended goals. We may be striving to obtain a particular objective, but unwittingly sabotaging our own efforts through inappropriate, counterproductive thinking. Negative thoughts also absorb valuable energy, create fears and doubts, and lead to stress and health problems. When used in therapy, they are aimed at training the client dispose (rather than dispute) of those undesirable thoughts that have been responsible for the emergence of symptoms. Please click here to see some samples of Thought-Stopping Techniques.

Eradicating negative thoughts sets the mind for the implementation of the “Visualization Technique”, the most remarkable cognitive strategy of modern times. This meditation-like exercise is far more effective than the traditional Guided-Imagery approach in that it incorporates the principles of Mind Power to create environmental opportunities as well as generating desirable personality and emotional changes. Visualization is central to maximize thinking power and it is possibly the closest experience to real life miracles you will ever encounter.

Effective Thinking is a well-researched, scientifically sound and complete self-help and therapeutic methodology that presents all major CBT strategies in a very elegant and easy to follow guide. It depicts traditional behavioural and cognitive therapy concepts in one concise Main Strategy that incorporates the latest advances in Mind Power, elevating psychology practice to a new height. It is an invaluable tool for both, the behavioral therapist as a treatment methodology, and the client as a self-help method.


What the book contains:

"What do I want? How do I get it? A complete guide to Effective Thinking and Mind Power" is a study into the very purpose of life, into the role that thinking plays in our lives and the forces that exist within us, and how these forces are responsible for our successes, our failures, and the symptoms your client presents.
Fourteen evolutionary principles explain the rules that govern our functioning as humans, and they allow us to understand the mechanisms responsible for everything we do – from making a cup of tea through to developing a successful career. When we violate these principles, we are effectively manufacturing our own problems.
The Effective Thinking model resorts to practical implementation of thoughts control (e.g Thought Stopping Techniques) making therapy more practical and less cumbersome – it removes the need to interpret or dispute thoughts, required by the traditional Rational Therapy.
Chapter 3 includes a detailed rationale and description of the Mind Power Visualization technique, one of the most innovative cognitive strategies. This is supplemented with the “Healing Visualization”, a strategy to use the power of thought to aid medical conditions and improve health. All strategies and techniques are explained in plain language and as step-by-step procedures. Complete scripts are included for strategies that require them, which you will use during therapy.
The Main Strategy packs together all major therapeutic phases into four easy to follow steps, the backbone of all behavioural treatments. It includes effective ways to identify subconscious motives and construct the Best Workable Option to resolve symptoms and difficulties.
Chapter 4 describes “The Life Satisfaction Rating Scale” and offers a methodology to increase life satisfaction.

Altogether, the book is a practical guide to modern CBT written to assist removing mysticism from our outlook of life, organize therapeutic intervention into a Main Strategy, and incorporate the latest advances from Mind Power into therapy and as a self-help method.

Please click here for more information.