Not to Worry-CBT

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Think on good. Hello and welcome to Think on Good. Coming up today. Do you feel like you're in a

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cycle of worry? Then you're not alone. According to the National Study of Mental Health and

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Well-Being: 2022

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experienced anxiety in the 12 month period. While worry is part of our everyday, prolonged and

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excessive worry can lead to mental illness, including anxiety and depression. Today we find

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out a little more about an evidence proven therapy, often applied to help stop the cycle of

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worry. Think on good is a program about the programs to give you insight into resources,

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community connection, groups and therapies all for building resilience and a healthy mind. Today we

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welcome Jo Fuller, counsellor from Wholly You at Lake MacDonnell on the Sunshine Coast. So, Jo, how

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did you get into mental health and counselling? For me, it's been a journey of both my

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professional and personal backgrounds. So professionally, I've been a teacher for the past

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15 years, and I've always been really interested in children's social emotional development

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and supporting their mental health and well-being. I believe if those areas aren't well supported,

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then other areas of their lives will suffer, like their learning and their social relationships.

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Um, and personally, I when I became a mum, I became even more interested in children's

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development, their brain development, mental health, and my own journey with mental health challenges

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through the years too. And they've all combined for me, being able to further my education a

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couple of years ago, and I did my master's in Education and guidance, Counselling and

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careers. So now I'm able to provide psychosocial education and counselling support

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for children and teens and also for their parents if needed. That's perfect. So

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today our focus is on cycles of thought, unhelpful thoughts or negative thoughts. There's so many

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different names. Rumination is another one. Um, what would you say for a child to

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actually help stop that? Or a young person to stop those repetitive negative thoughts? Yeah.

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Well, say for children, sometimes they don't have that maturity yet to really

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recognise what might be going on. So sometimes that parent might pick it up or a teacher it

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might be through behaviours like negative self-talk. They're picking that up that that's

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happening or sometimes it presents it as a physical symptom. Um, not always, but often.

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The chronic continual stomach pains, headaches that can all lead to oh,

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okay, there might be some thought patterns here that need changing. So for working with

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children. A lot of the time we're trying to make the invisible so our thoughts visible so we can

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use different strategies, different techniques. Um, I like to use sometimes it's social

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stories, role playing. Um, we can do worksheets. What I've been doing lately

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is we've been blowing up balloons and writing just with a Sharpie, all the negative self-talk

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that might be happening. And then we have a really beautiful visual. It's a bit loud, you can cover

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your ears, and we can pop that negative self-talk. And we just call it different things. Like the

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bully in my brain, we can train our brains, we can replace our thoughts. We have the power to

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do that. Our brains are very clever. Yes, they can change. Which I do try and explain neuroplasticity

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in their language and they really get it. They it can change. Um, yeah. So then we start to replace

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those with more helpful thoughts, more positive thoughts. So yeah, I'd like to try and use visuals,

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something that makes it tangible. And it would be the same for adults or older people as well, when

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they have repetitive thoughts and it can be a habit. So what actually happens in the body is

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it's similar to what happens in the body for a young person as an older person as well, with a

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repetitive negative thinking. Yeah, definitely. I think it can affect all areas of our health.

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I think, um, sometimes it can present in our bodies as well. We've all had that racing kind

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of feeling in our chest. We can get quite physically sick if we don't pay attention and

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if we don't move through it. Um, yeah. It can affect our physical health, can affect our emotional

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health, our spiritual health, obviously our mental health. It's all so intrinsically connected. Yes.

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So self-awareness. What part does that play in helping a person realise? Actually, I don't have to

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self-blame or I don't have to put myself down. And how does that help? self-awareness. Yeah. So it's a

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really good skill to be able to learn to become self-aware. It's like we can take a bit of a step

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back and become really reflective. We can start to think a little bit more about the patterns that

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we might have created through the years. Yeah, we might think, oh, okay, that might be why I'm

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feeling a certain way. That might be why I'm behaving a certain way. Yeah. And we replace it

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with a new thought. Is that where we CBT comes in? It's used regularly. Tell us a little bit more

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about that therapy. Yeah. So CBT is often regarded as the golden standard of

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treatment. And I think that's because there's such a big body of research out there showing the

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evidence that it is effective. Yeah. So put it in. To put it in simple terms. Yeah. The

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first step is to be able to identify those negative thought patterns and then to replace

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them. So obviously This takes time and it takes consistency.

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But there are really positive effects from CBT. Yeah. Yeah. So what would

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you say to a person out there that knows that they worry continually and doesn't know how to

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stop it? What would be the first steps or what would you advise to do. Yeah. So it's really great

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to have that self-awareness that there is the need to change. There is obviously a

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lot of information out there online, on the internet. People can start to have a little look

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there if they like, if they find it a little bit intimidating to go see a counsellor first. I think

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you can for sure go and check out the resources. Even with the rise of AI at the moment,

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changing the way we do things. I do think as we journey through though, um,

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seeing a person in real life will always be, I think, the better option

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because the person can bring real empathy and real connection, and I think that's

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really important in the journey. Um, of. Yeah. Of helping. Changing our thoughts.

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Yeah. So looking at CBT again, um, if you're going to a counsellor, what's the process? So I'm part of

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the Christian Counsellors Association. Um, so you can go on to their website and you can put

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in where you live and there's a directory of if you're after a Christian counsellor and

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they can you can have a look and look at their bio. And they'll often write what kind of

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therapies they use, what sort of theories they draw from. And I think you can get a good feel of

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a person's approach that way. Um, I would say a lot of counsellors and therapy

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therapists use CBT in one way or another in their approach. Now, when someone's

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starting to make a change, in particular if they're known in a, say, a large family, and they're

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starting to make a change. And they find that it's really hard because they're getting pulled back

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into their roles. I think when we begin to start making some changes, um, people in our

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lives who know us really well and they're used to a certain person and you're

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changing, there can be pushback and that can be difficult to navigate. Um, I think

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for me, it comes down to the choices of how we respond so we

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can respond in a passive way, which is not to do anything. It's when you repress

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everything, suppress it. And that's not really going to help the individual who's trying to make

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the positive changes. Um, it might make the other people. Oh, okay. This is good.

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Not rocking the boat or anything, but in the long run, it's not going to help the individual. Um, then

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there's the Aggressive approach you could take. Um, and that is going in. Look,

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everybody, I'm, you know, trying and trying get and they can get angry. And that to me

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just further contributes to like a breakdown in relationships. And then there's the

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passive aggressive approach, which I think what happens there is manipulation. It can seem a bit

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manipulative and manipulation and control because you're trying to control it in a certain way. Um,

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for me, the best approach and what we try and teach as well from a young age even is assertive

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communication. So practising to be calm, respectful, but you are

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able to use your voice and say what you need and why. Yes. And at least then, even though if

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we don't know what the outcome will be of that. But at least you as a person feel true to

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yourself and you are feeling like you're speaking the truth in love. So trying to break a cycle. Say

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for instance, in the digital space, what would you say to the younger person who finds that they're

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continually on this, um, treadmill, so to speak, every day they go to their phone before they even

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go to the bathroom, and then they're back on their socials at lunchtime and at morning tea and right

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through into the evening. What would you say to them? Because obviously that does affect your

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moods and your behaviour. Definitely. I think like anything, it can take a little bit of

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time to see change. But if you recognise, first of all that, ah, I'd like to

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change in this area or somebody else is noticing the change in the behaviour it takes that um,

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inside of you wanting to change, you know, and also recognising it takes time and

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consistency. But we can start with a small step. So that might be limiting the screen,

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putting some boundaries around that. Um, realising inside there will be a bit of a battle going

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on because you are making a change. You know, our neural pathways, they take the path that they

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are used to, the path of least resistance, so to speak. So if we are

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continually strengthening that and that can be filtered into our habits, we're continually

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strengthening, strengthening those pathways. It will take a bit of time to see some change, but I

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think putting some boundaries in place, starting small, starting with putting in a little win, if

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you um, yeah, maybe put in a different kind of reward. I won't do that first

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thing, but I will reward myself with something else that's other than the screen. What about your

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favourite quote or saying? Can you share that with us? Yeah, sure. So mine's more of a scripture from

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Romans 12 two where it says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing

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of your mind. So for me, that's been a really key scripture. It speaks to me of the metamorphosis

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approach going from the caterpillar into the butterfly. And how we do that is renewing our

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minds, which is really what CBT is really noticing those thoughts, changing

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those thoughts according to truth. Yeah. Sounds good. Thanks again for your time today, Jo. Thank

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you for joining us. Thanks so much. Repetitive negative thinking can impact moods and sometimes

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ng goals. A paper released in: 2022

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BBC, lab UK and University of Liverpool, found it is not the scale of the trauma or stress that

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leads to anxiety and depression disorders, but how often we ruminate and self-blame about the event

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that may lead to mental health illness. There are effective treatments and programs to help change

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the pattern of thinking for positive, healthy outcomes. The most often applied is cognitive

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eveloped by Aaron Beck in the: 1960

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therapy in treating distorted thoughts, depression, anxiety, anger, eating disorders, and substance

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abuse. CBT therapy is based on thoughts, feelings and behaviours are all interconnected. CBT

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challenges people to identify unhelpful thoughts and evaluate evidence for and against them. This

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process looks at negative thoughts and emotions and replaces with positive, healthy thoughts. Think

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on Good is a program offering information for mind health and is not intended to replace

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medical treatment, professional advice or diagnosis. If you or someone you know is

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experiencing mental health symptoms for immediate support, contact lifeline on 13

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we hope you find the right connections and think on good.

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Think on good.