John A. Bragstad Counseling

11550 Stillwater Blvd N

Lake Elmo, MN

 

(651) 308 1200

 

Change your Thinking!  Change Your Feelings!   Change your Life!

Specializing in cognitive-behavioral

therapy (CBT) & marriage counseling

How do you explain the difference? 

 

It is said that the mind can make for us a heaven or a hell.  What we say to ourselves matters!

 

Like the steady hum of the fan we don’t hear anymore in our office, we rarely are aware of

this “voiceless” conversation going on in our heads.  Even stranger is that while we live out

of our assumptions, we rarely take the time to examine them.

 

We say the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, a fact to most people’s way of thinking. 

But in truth the sun doesn’t rise or set.  It is fixed.  We’re the ones who are moving as the earth rotates. 

 

You too have often unexamined, untested beliefs that determine how you will react in certain situations, how you think of yourself, what limits you will put on your efforts to change.

 

Most of the time, these beliefs cause us few problems.  But when you are dealing with stress,

that is the time when they can make life most difficult.  You can become trapped in your own

thinking (and how you think about thinking) and sabotage your goals and heartfelt desires. You

can beat yourself up and put yourself down instead of moving forward towards greater happiness.

 

Your thoughts can leave you feeling hopeless … and helpless.

 

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a time-efficient, well-researched approach that can

help people regain control of their lives.  Here are some problems CBT can be effective with:

 

    anxiety & panic attacks                                   dealing with stress / stress management

     depression    / teenage depression                anger management

     fear                                                                  problems of self-esteem

     agoraphobia and social phobia                       prolonged sadness and sorrow

     insomnia and sleep difficulty                            post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)

     internet addiction                                            childhood trauma

     videogame addiction                                       chronic fatigue

     relational / commitment difficulties                  lack of happiness and chronic negativity

Real Help for Individuals

The greatest single step

a person can take is the

journey inward

A stage hypnotist “convinces” someone that they can’t pick up a feather … and they can’t.

 

Two people are involved in the same accident. For the sake of argument, they have identical injuries.  The one languishes in the hospital, is bitter, refuses therapy and seems unable to get back into life. 

 

The other goes on to accept their loss, works hard at recovery and adapts.  The world-class runner now becomes a world-class kayaker.  

 

Whether it is a fear or phobia, anxiety or depression, CBT can make a difference.  If you are looking for help dealing with stress or for anger management or prolonged sadness, cognitive-behavioral therapy can bring relief and better understanding. 

 

As a result of this process, you will know more about how you make yourself more

depressed by how you think about depression, more anxious by how you view anxiety. 

CBT can show you how you add stress to how you are dealing with stress, how you limit your

ability to see real danger because of ways you exhaust yourself looking for perceived dangers.

 

CBT helps people with ptsd to separate the past from the present.  It encourages those who lack self-confidence by showing them how waiting for self-confident feelings to appear deprives them of the very thing they need most.  Cognitive-behavioral therapy makes you more aware of how your  oughts, shoulds, musts and have to’s create unhappiness and work against your goals.

 

CBT IS NOT ONLY insight-oriented psychology.  It provides real tools and assignments that invite change in a respectful way that will make sense to you.  Homework assignments are fairly common.  After all, if nothing changes, nothing changes. 

 

Feelings are also an important part of cognitive-behavioral therapy.  The goal is not to distance yourself from your emotions but to understand and validate their importance while at the same time not letting them overwhelm you.

 

Learn to act differently / from the Inside Out!  Take back this part of your life .  Fear and phobias, anger management, depression, anxiety and stress can all be seen from a different perspective.  You can move on!  Life can be different!

 

For more information on how cognitive-behavioral therapy might benefit you,

please call at no obligation:  John A. Bragstad Counseling, Stillwater MN