Tools/Techniques

If you have never worked with Dr. Grant and would like to, please click on the "New Patients" page to the left, read it, and follow its directions.  I welcome the chance to work with you!

Thought Substitution

Sometimes the best way to handle a negative thought is simply to substitute another, more realistic thought in its place.  In this way you don’t fight the negative, distorted thought, you just knock it out and replace it with a more truthful one.

Think of a negative, pesky thought like a nail that has been driven into a board.  How do you get the nail out?  You can try to pull it out with the claw end of a hammer.  Or, you can put another nail tip on the head of the orginal nail and drive the old one out as the new one pushes in.  So, you can pull a nail out or drive it out.  Thought substitution is like driving a negative thought (nail) out of your head by pushing in a new one to take its place.  The new thought is a "mental equivalent" of the old one but differs in that it is positive and realistic rather than negative or unrealistic.  This is important because we tend to focus on our thoughts and anything we focus our energy on grows.  So we need to make sure we focus on what we want more of.  Focus on perceptions of lack and lack grows.  Focus on what you feel you can't do and "can't do" grows (see also Can the Can't).  Focus instead on what you want more of, and that grows at least in your mind and then, later perhaps, in reality.

Example: For: "There is just so much tragedy and sadness in the world!"

(notice the need to take some behavioral steps in these statements?)

Make sure your substitution is honest, factual, real and not just some positive platitude because you won't believe that and wearing rose colored glasses is NOT what Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is about.  It is about seeing your world in an undistorted way so you can respond to it effectively as it IS and then make it what you want it to BE.

Things are sometimes tough and sad.  No doubt about it.  So, what can I do, today, in my life and in my world to make things just a tiny bit better, more just, fairer?

1101 Johnson Avenue, Suite 200   Myrtle Beach, SC  29577     P: 843.839.9028     F: 843.839.9029

Coastal Center for Cognitive Therapy, PA

For a paper copy of the Toolbox, click here.

The CBT Toolbox