CBT Vancouver/Port Coquitlam: Change your thoughts, change your life!

Have you ever felt empty, isolated, and fatigued with the general pace of life? Maybe you are experiencing unrelenting sadness, with no joy in your days.

Are you easily irritated and find yourself being fuelled by a force of anger?

Or perhaps it seems like people are always letting you down; nothing seems to go right.

Do you find yourself continually imagining that something awful is going to  happen? Does ”What if….?” continually go through your mind, conjuring up threatening, frightful, and overwhelming images?

Or perhaps fear has you in its grip, preventing you from living a full life.

CBT can help you

All of these experiences are rooted in your ‘thoughts’ and when you think a certain way, your emotions will follow. A continual tendency to experience resentment, disappointment, anger, frustration, apathy, and stress enable conditions such as depression and anxiety to move in and make themselves at home.

The way we think determines the way we feel; the way we interpret events and the meanings we attach to circumstances will dictate how we feel and behave.

And this is a good thing! This means that even though we can’t change other people, or choose how life will unfold for us, we can change what we think; how we interpret it; and how we respond.

Changing our negative and self-defeating thoughts to those that are realistic and balanced is the work of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), resulting in feeling better. CBT has strong research evidence to support its effectiveness.

Based in Vancouver and Port Coquitlam, BC, Dr. Arthur Rathgeber is certified in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) from the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He holds a Diplomate from the Academy. For further information on the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, please visit our Links page.

Dr. Rathgeber is also certified in CBT through the Canadian Association of Cognitive Behavioural Therapies (CACBT-ACTCC).

You have already made the first step toward change and growth by reaching out. Experts have said that the impulse to seek therapy may well derive from a healthy sense that one can be helped by someone else. It is this courage that will allow you to be successful whatever your personal goals. Overall, the goal of therapy is to achieve a state of good mental health.

“Change your thoughts and you change your world!”

– Norman Vincent Peale

What does mental health ‘look like’?

• A zest for living – to laugh and have fun
• A sense of contentment
• Ability to deal effectively with stress
• To bounce back when adversity strikes
• A sense of meaning and purpose
• Ability to form and maintain fulfilling relationships
• Balance in activities
• Flexibility in thinking, to learn new things, and to adapt to change
• Engaged in learning
• Confidence in self and sense of worth

In a paraphrase of Alfred Adler (a Cognitive Therapist), a healthy person is goal-directed, creative, and in a cooperative, ethical, and constructive relationship with others. He also acknowledges the role of values, morals, and spirituality.

There are three essential conditions for effective therapy:

• A client who has the courage to address their issues and is motivated to change
• A therapist who is compassionate and skilled and can engage with the client
• A therapy, such as CBT, that has evidence-based research to support its effectiveness.

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”

– Hindu Prince Gautama Siddhartha

What’s in a name?

Nature provides inspiring images for wellness. Willow Grove Counselling, Inc. is so-named because of the following characteristics of the willow tree:

• Healing properties
• The balanced formation of branches
• Flexibility and resiliency in strong winds
• Roots ensuring stability and growth

Many artists, poets, philosophers and botanists claim that the willow tree ‘thinks’ and ‘wonders’ and gives the landscape on which is has been planted, a calm and peaceful appearance. We find the natural beauty of the Vancouver area inspires a sense of serenity.

A willow grove exemplifies the notion that as strong and independent as one can be, all of us are better in a partnership, in a relationship, or in a group.