Thought Stopping Technique

Thought stopping is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique that can help anyone break free of continuous thoughts that may cause anxiety by using awareness and practice to change these thoughts.  Thought stopping can be a quick and effective method to distract yourself from your own anxiety by thinking about something else. One can practice thought stopping whenever anxious thoughts start to ruminate in one's mind. Once mastered, you will fill more in control of your thoughts and be able to stop anxious thoughts on command.

Here are some steps to practice thought stopping:

1. Think about what anxious thoughts you have struggled with or are currently struggling with and identify them so that you can have more awareness regarding your own anxiety.
2. Prepare a calming thought ahead of time that you will be able to use in times of anxiety.  For example, "I am peaceful and safe," "I'm on a beach and feel the sand under my feet," or "I am confident."
3. Be aware of your anxious thought.
4. Immediately tell yourself "STOP" in your mind.  For visual thinkers, you may want to visualize a stop sign and for kinesthetic thinkers, you may want to wear a rubber band and gently snap it on your wrist.
5. Exchange your anxious thought for a neutral/ calming thought.  The new thought can either be a general pre-planned thought or you can replace your current thought with something more accepting. For example, if you are anxious on a flight with turbulance and are thinking the plane is going down, a replacement thought could be "That was a bump in the road, we are in good hands with the pilot."
6. Continue to repeat your new thought in your mind, or even out loud if you need, until the anxious thought is extinguished.

Remember for this technique to work, you need to practice the technique! Also, if one visual or statement is not working for you, you may need to try different ones until you find what works best for you.

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Cognitive Behavioral Techniques for Weight Loss

Obesity is a growing epidemic in America for both adults and adolescents that is caused by consuming more energy than what is being used through daily activity or exercise.  Genetics also can play a part in the role of obesity.  Obesity can create substantial health risks that include diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, joint discomfort, and even sleep apnea.  There are many management options available to try to reduce weight that include lifestyle changes, medication, diets, and even surgical procedures.

Through the field of counseling, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has evolved as a technique for weight reduction and management to help obese individuals.  Ever wonder how counseling and weight loss can go hand-in-hand?  Well, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been linked to weight loss not because it's a "fad" diet plan, but because if one can successfully incorporate lifestyle changes by changing one's thoughts and behavior patterns, weight loss can be achieved.

The important key for using CBT in weight loss is that you are ready to make changes in your lifestyle, not just for a short period of time, but for the rest of your life!  Moving forward with change can be scary because there are both short-term and long-term costs and benefits.  Therefore, it's important to make sure your mind is set for change and can counteract negative thoughts that have already been programmed into your mind from an early age.  The goal of CBT is to identify your sabotaging thoughts so that you can replace them with appropriate thoughts.  CBT can help with weight loss by providing motivation, coping skills, and support while helping one to take control of her body, improve self-esteem, and help with stress management that typically surround the process of attempting to lose weight.

To begin using CBT in weight loss, one first needs to think about how many calories the body truly needs vs. how many calories a day you are consuming.  My first assignment I often give clients is to keep a food journal.  Food journaling is an important technique in CBT for weight loss because it makes one extremely mindful of everything one eats.  A food journal should consist of what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat, where you eat, how you feel when you eat, and a calorie count.  I know this seems like a lot of information and it is, but all of these questions lead to awareness of your eating habits.  Once there is a picture of your pattern of eating habits, then CBT can be used to train the brain differently with various techniques.


If you want to learn more about CBT in Weight Loss, you may want to consider reading more about CBT for Weight Loss.  There are many wonderful self-help books out there regarding CBT and weight loss, here are a few I personally recommend:

• The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think like a Thin Person by Judith S. Beck, PhD
• The Diet Trap: Feed Your Psychological Needs & End the Weight Loss Struggle Using Acceptance & Commitment Therapy by Jason Lillis PhD, Joanne Dahl, PhD, and Sandra M Weineland, PhD
• The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Weight Management: A step-by-step program by Michele Laliberte, PhD, Randi E McCabe, PhD, and Valerie Taylor, MD, PhD

These books are wonderful resources and can give you a foundation for CBT and weight loss. However, I would encourage you to take one step further and consider counseling for weight loss if you are truly looking to make a change in your life.  The counseling process provides support, motivation, encouragement, and accountability which at times can be difficult to obtain from a self-help book.

If you would like a CBT Weight Loss consultation and you are located in the New Orleans Metro Area, please contact Thrive Counseling Center LLC at 504-390-9538 or kcamelford@thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.  Brought to you by www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a popular theory to use in counseling with clients of all ages and diversities (Vernon, 2004). The theory originated with Aaron T. Beck in the 1960s as a short-term, here-and-now focused, problem-solving form of psychotherapy for depression (Beck, 1995). The main concept is that individuals are in control of their thoughts and, therefore, in control of how they feel (Beck, 1995). The goal of therapy is to produce cognitive change in a client's thinking and belief system to help create emotional and behavioral changes in the client's environment (Beck, 1995). CBT is goal oriented, structured, and problem focused for every client (Beck, 1995). The client's treatment plan will vary considering the presenting problem, any diagnosis issued, past exposure to therapy, client goals, and willingness to participate in treatment (Beck, 1995).

A CBT counselor creates a cognitive conceptualization to create an individualized framework to work with each client. Through this technique, counseling can be customized to each client utilizing several overarching principles in CBT (Beck, 1995). CBT consists of specific learning experiences designed to teach clients how to track their automatic thoughts, acknowledge the connection between thoughts and personal behaviors, and substitute more rational oriented interpretations in place of irrational thoughts (Beck, 1995). Because CBT is pragmatic, psycho-educational, and relatively brief, it has become a popular therapy utilized in private practices by counselors.  

Sources: 

Beck, J.S. (1995). Cognitive therapy: Basic and beyond. New York: The Guilford Press. 

Vernon, A. (2004). Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques. In B. T. Erford (Ed.), Professional

school counseling: A handbook of theories, programs, & practices (91-100). Austin, TX:
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