By Lenka Pitonakova, PhD, RPC-C
Unconscious content and how it turns into negative feelings
Summary- Sadness, shame and anxiety are often caused by negative automatic thoughts
- We live our lives by "rules" that we learned - even if they are causing us to feel bad about ourselves
- Realizing and challenging our negative core beliefs can lead to long-lasting improvement in mental health
Never miss an article!
Follow Treerock Therapy on:
Sign up for the newsletter:
You've probably heard of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, or CBT. It's currently one of the most popular approaches in psychotherapy, and it is often applied to help with anxiety,
depression, phobias and even OCD. There are three very useful concepts in CBT that have revolutionized how we think about mental health treatment:
Automatic Thoughts, Dysfunctional Schema, and Maladaptive Assumptions.
These terms essentially describe how unconscious content (things in our minds that we are not aware of) eventually turns into negative emotions. I use these concepts in my own counselling work quite often and in this article, I'm going to delve into them a bit.
These terms essentially describe how unconscious content (things in our minds that we are not aware of) eventually turns into negative emotions. I use these concepts in my own counselling work quite often and in this article, I'm going to delve into them a bit.
Automatic thoughts
Automatic thoughts appear very much on the conscious level - we are aware of thinking them. However, because they are "automatic", they tend to appear spontaneously, and not necessarily because we "want to" have them. When these thoughts are overly negative, they can lead to negative feelings of sadness, shame and anxiety.
Let's take an example of Erica, who was just told off by her manager for doing something incorrectly. Erica automatically thinks "Others are judging me" and "I'm going to get fired". This is not helping her mental health at all! Erica may even struggle with herself for thinking these things, because she knows that they are making her feel bad. And yet, she cannot help but have her thoughts.
Maladaptive assumptions
Maladaptive assumptions are "rules" about life that we believe to be true. They usually have a form of statements with phrases like "should" or "if - then" in them.
The problem is that some of these assumptions may cause us to look at a neutral or even a positive situation and interpret it in a negative way.
They are "maladaptive" because they were useful to us at some point in life (usually as a form of protection against something or someone),
but they are not useful anymore. We normally don't challenge these rules because we firmly believe that they are correct.
Instead, we try to fit our reality around them.
Back to our example, when Erica is confronted by her manager, the following assumptions get triggered in her head: "You should never make mistakes" and "If you are not perfect, you will get punished". Even though they may seem extreme, we can also see how they could have been useful at some point in Erica's life. For example, if Erica's parents were very strict about her grades at school, Erica would have had to learn these rules to adapt to her childhood home environment.
Dysfunctional schema
Dysfunctional schema are negative core beliefs that we have about ourselves, or about the world. We learn these beliefs during significant moments of our lives, most commonly in childhood or as teenagers. It is often difficult to challenge these core beliefs, because they are deeply embedded in our personality. Sometimes, we are not even aware of having them.
In Erica's example, her core beliefs are that "I am stupid" and "Others are out to get me". This is a distorted and overly negative image of herself and of others. Like with maladaptive assumptions, she likely picked up these beliefs when she was growing up and was punished any time she did not do things perfectly. Erica views all that happens in her adult life through the lens of her core beliefs. Naturally, she assumes that she can never make mistakes and she automatically jumps to catastrophic conclusions like "I will get fired".
Working at all levels
In my work, I use a mix of CBT and Psychodynamic techniques to help my clients discover how beliefs and rules that hide in their unconscious cause them to be anxious and to self-sabotage.
I usually start by helping a client observe and log their automatic thoughts - these present a window into what's going on and are often the easiest to track.
Logging your automatic thoughts regularly can be helpful by itself - my clients often report feeling less anxious and generally better when they start keeping a diary. However, this is only step one of my work. Following automatic thoughts, I usually guide the client to dig a bit deeper and discover where these thoughts may be coming from. I ask things like "What is it that makes you believe this is true?", "How do you think this [negative thing] will happen"? By doing this, I am allowing the client to express themselves freely and to start entertaining the possibility that not all automatic thoughts are 100% true. While I completely accept each client's beliefs and their unique reality, eventually, the client discovers that there may be alternative ways of thinking.
Going all the way and finding the client's core beliefs usually involves a psychodynamic approach. I firmly believe that everyone is capable of greater self-awareness and I encourage clients, when they are ready, to explore moments in their life when they learned something significant about themselves or about the world. During this work, the client becomes focused and spontaneous, and feels safe to express what they previously hid from me, from others or maybe even from themselves.
Working with core beliefs is where the truly amazing work can happen. It does take a lot of courage and determination though. I have deep admiration for anyone who dares to challenge their internal views that are keeping them anxious, sad and effectively imprisoned within themselves. Through this painful but freeing work, anyone can begin to heal from the inside out.
Logging your automatic thoughts regularly can be helpful by itself - my clients often report feeling less anxious and generally better when they start keeping a diary. However, this is only step one of my work. Following automatic thoughts, I usually guide the client to dig a bit deeper and discover where these thoughts may be coming from. I ask things like "What is it that makes you believe this is true?", "How do you think this [negative thing] will happen"? By doing this, I am allowing the client to express themselves freely and to start entertaining the possibility that not all automatic thoughts are 100% true. While I completely accept each client's beliefs and their unique reality, eventually, the client discovers that there may be alternative ways of thinking.
Going all the way and finding the client's core beliefs usually involves a psychodynamic approach. I firmly believe that everyone is capable of greater self-awareness and I encourage clients, when they are ready, to explore moments in their life when they learned something significant about themselves or about the world. During this work, the client becomes focused and spontaneous, and feels safe to express what they previously hid from me, from others or maybe even from themselves.
Working with core beliefs is where the truly amazing work can happen. It does take a lot of courage and determination though. I have deep admiration for anyone who dares to challenge their internal views that are keeping them anxious, sad and effectively imprisoned within themselves. Through this painful but freeing work, anyone can begin to heal from the inside out.
As a clinical counsellor, I help my clients gain deeper self-awareness and facilitate their ability to challenge unhelpful thoughts and behaviour.
Learn more if you need support.
