Evidence-based methods on CBT Poland Center

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The core idea

What affects us is not so much what happens as how we interpret it. The same event — an unanswered message, criticism at work, a quickened heartbeat — produces different emotions in different people because the interpretations differ.

Schema therapy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

When ordinary CBT is not enough

It happens like this: a person understands their thoughts, has mastered the techniques, does the assignments — and still ends up at the same point again and again. The same relationships, the same script, the same sense of not measuring up.

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Who this approach is for

Some people’s emotions arise faster, reach greater intensity and subside more slowly than most. This is not a choice and not manipulation — it is a feature of emotional regulation.

EMDR — eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

What happens to a traumatic memory

An ordinary memory is integrated over time into the general stream of memory: we know the event is in the past and can talk about it without living through it again.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A change of aim

The classical logic: to live well you first have to get rid of anxiety, sadness, self-doubt. ACT puts the question differently: what if that condition cannot be met?

Compassion focused therapy (CFT)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The problem this approach solves

A familiar situation: a person understands perfectly well that the thought “I am worthless” is illogical. They can produce arguments against it. And they still feel exactly the same.

Rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The key distinction

REBT distinguishes healthy from unhealthy negative emotions. This is an important point: the approach does not suggest that you should not be upset by bad things.

Losing a job is a reason for distress. That is a healthy emotion: it is proportionate to the event and does not stop you acting. But one person experiences distress and another despair that paralyses. The difference is not in the event but in the belief applied to it.

Family psychotherapy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The core principle

A family is a system. Each person’s behaviour affects the others, and almost any entrenched problem is maintained not by one person but by the interaction.

From this follows a practical consequence: looking for someone to blame is pointless. Even when it seems that “the problem is him”, change usually requires everyone’s participation — because the others’ reactions are part of the mechanism.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

What it is

MBSR is not therapy and not relaxation. It is an eight-week course teaching one specific skill: noticing what is happening in the body, thoughts and emotions without trying to change or judge it immediately.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The task the programme was created for

Depression tends to return. After one episode the likelihood of another rises noticeably; after three it becomes high. The reason is that each episode entrenches a mechanism: a small dip in mood sets off a familiar chain of thoughts about being inadequate and about hopelessness, and the chain itself winds the state up into a full episode.

The unified transdiagnostic protocol (UP)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The problem the protocol solves

Classical CBT developed separate protocols for separate disorders: one for panic, one for social anxiety, one for depression. This works — as long as a person has one disorder.

The MORE programme — working with addictive behaviour

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The observation the programme grew from

In prolonged addiction a shift takes place: what used to bring joy — food, company, music, nature — stops bringing it. The reinforcement system reorganises itself around one overwhelming stimulus, and everything else no longer registers as pleasure against that background.