Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Key Part of My Practice

Relief and Lasting Empowerment

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a focused, problem-solving therapeutic approach that enables individuals to differentiate between beliefs, thoughts, and feelings. It facilitates a shift in how people perceive and react to life’s events, emphasizing that it’s a person’s perception, not the events themselves, that influences their emotions and behaviors.

How I Use CBT in My Practice

In my practice, CBT is more than a method for temporary relief; it’s a comprehensive journey toward reshaping thought processes and behaviors for enduring change and empowerment. Here’s how I approach it:

  • Balanced Approach for Immediate Comfort and Long-Term Growth: Sessions are designed to provide support for current challenges while setting the foundation for ongoing personal development and fulfillment.
  • Integration with The Six Pillars of Making a Life That Works: I pair CBT with my Six Pillars framework, ensuring the therapy contributes to both short-term relief and long-term growth. This includes:
    • Contacting the Present Moment (Be Here Now): Enhancing present-moment awareness.
    • Defusion (Watch Your Thinking): Learning to detach from unhelpful thoughts and beliefs.
    • Acceptance (Open Up): Embracing emotions for deeper resilience.
    • Self-as-Context (Balancing Self-Identity): Understanding the enduring self beyond immediate experiences.
    • Values (Know What Matters): Aligning therapy with your personal core values.
    • Committed Action (Do What It Takes): Encouraging actions that resonate with your values and goals.
  • Systematic and Structured Sessions: CBT sessions are methodically structured, focusing on specific objectives in each session, enhancing both effectiveness and productivity.
  • Tailored to Individual Needs: Recognizing the uniqueness of each individual, I personalize CBT to address your specific challenges, ensuring relevance and impact.
  • Addressing a Broad Spectrum of Issues: CBT is effective for a range of concerns, including depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, OCD, PTSD, compulsive behaviors, persistent pain, disordered eating, sexual issues, and anger management.

Would You Benefit from CBT?

Are you struggling with persistent negative thoughts, overwhelming emotions, or behaviors that disrupt your life? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy might be the change you’ve been looking for. I work with a wide range of concerns, including:

  • Battling Anxiety and Stress
  • Overcoming Depression
  • Dealing with Phobias and Fears
  • Managing OCD and Compulsive Behaviors
  • Recovery from Trauma and PTSD
  • Tackling Eating Disorders
  • Improving Relationships and Social Skills
  • Enhancing Self-Esteem and Confidence
  • Anger Management

If you see your struggles reflected in any of these points, CBT could be the key to a more fulfilling, balanced, and empowered life.

Embark on a Path to Cognitive and Behavioral Mastery

If you’re ready to change your relationship with your thoughts and behaviors, I’m here to guide you. My approach to CBT addresses immediate concerns while equipping you with skills for a fulfilling and empowered life. Reach out today to get started.

What people often get wrong about CBT

It’s not positive thinking, and it never was.

A smiling Colt Gordon with curly hair and a beard is wearing a white shirt, standing in front of a colorful landscape background and a bookshelf.

The Misconception

CBT ignores your past and only cares about the present.

The Reality

CBT works in the present, but the patterns it targets have histories — the core beliefs underneath today's automatic thoughts were usually installed young, often by the family system. We trace them back far enough to understand them. Then we return to the present, where they can actually be changed.

The Misconception

CBT is a quick fix — three sessions and done.

The Reality

CBT is efficient by design, but "brief" means months of structured work and real between-session practice, not a magic trick. The speed comes from focus, and the durability comes from the reps. Anyone selling three-session transformations is selling.

The Misconception

CBT is cold, mechanical worksheet therapy.

The Reality

Worksheets exist, but the method is Socratic, not clerical — curious questions about how your specific mind builds its specific cases against you. In my practice CBT runs warm: structured, yes; rigid, no. The relationship does the carrying; the tools do the cutting.

The Misconception

CBT is just positive thinking with homework.

The Reality

CBT isn't about thinking happy thoughts — it's about thinking *accurately*. The work is catching the distortion (catastrophizing, mind-reading, all-or-nothing) and testing it against evidence. Sometimes the accurate thought isn't positive at all; it's just true, and true turns out to be enough.

The Misconception

CBT only treats depression and anxiety.

The Reality

CBT's evidence base spans panic, phobias, OCD, PTSD, disordered eating, anger, sexual issues, chronic pain, and insomnia. It's the most broadly validated psychotherapy model in existence — the question is rarely whether CBT applies, but what to pair it with.

The Misconception

CBT says feelings don’t matter — only thoughts do.

The Reality

CBT treats feelings as the outcome that matters most — the entire model exists because thoughts and behaviors are the levers that move them. Nothing in CBT dismisses emotion; it just declines to take emotion's word for what's true. Feelings are data, wonderful servants — and CBT is one way to stop them being masters.

The Misconception

I tried CBT once and it didn’t work, so it never will.

The Reality

CBT delivered poorly — rushed, rote, or mismatched to the problem — fails like anything delivered poorly. So does CBT alone when the problem needed trauma processing or systems work first. A method that didn't land in one context isn't a verdict; sequencing and fit matter as much as the model.

The Misconception

If thoughts cause feelings, I should be able to think my way out of anything.

The Reality

Perception shapes response — that's CBT's core insight — but thoughts aren't switches you flip by willpower. The skill is examining and restructuring patterns over time, with practice, not out-arguing your mind in the moment. When out-arguing fails, that's not you failing CBT; it's where defusion picks up.

The Misconception

The homework in CBT is optional extra credit.

The Reality

The session is one hour; your patterns train the other 167. Between-session practice is where the rewiring actually happens — skipping it is like hiring a personal trainer to watch you not lift. You've got to do the reps. I'll spot you, but I can't do them for you.

The Misconception

You have to pick a side: CBT or ACT.

The Reality

They're relatives, not rivals — ACT grew out of the behavioral tradition CBT built. CBT disputes the thought's content; ACT changes your relationship to the thought entirely. Some moments call for cross-examination, others for "thank you for sharing." I use both, and the seam doesn't show.

    Straight answers about CBT

    How it differs from ACT, how much homework is involved, and how long it takes. No jargon, no upsell. If your question isn’t here, the free 15-minute consultation exists for exactly that.

    Let's Talk

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    The hardest part is reaching out — so we keep it small. Fifteen minutes, no paperwork, no pressure. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so and point you to someone who is. Either way, you leave with a next step.
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