Mind Body Symbiosis

Mind Body Symbiosis is one of the 5 key Principles of CBT.

We have already established that it is NOT events that cause emotions (events don’t cause feelings), but rather the ‘meaning’ of those events that then create the emotional ‘response’. So having the thought that ‘I am ugly’ is likely to trigger feelings of shame, guilt or sadness.

CBT also considers that the way we feel can also have an influence on the way that we ‘think’.

This causal relationship between thoughts and feelings is known as mind body symbiosis (one relies on the other).

So if I have the thought that ‘I am ugly’ and then feel sad and depressed then I am more likely to have thoughts that I am ugly, one ‘feeding’ the other!

The impact that ‘behaviour’ has on our thinking is also reinforced by the way we act.

If, for example, I avoid walking through the local park because somebody got mugged there 6 months ago, I create the idea that the streets are ‘dangerous’ and so might avoid going out at all.

This limits my ability to challenge that idea and prove that the streets are, on the whole, completely safe, because I don’t go out anymore and so therefore cannot ever ‘establish’ any contradictory ‘evidence’ to prove otherwise.

In this way ‘avoiding the streets’ (safety behaviours) to make me feel ‘safe’ has the opposite effect and makes me feel MORE anxious and not safe at all!

This mind body symbiosis also provides potential solutions – because our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are all interconnected in this way, making a change to any one of them has an inevitable influence on the other two.

So, CBT may involve changing thoughts, feelings or behaviours to bring about changes to problems.

Free Initial Consultations

We offer all prospective clients an initial consultation to discuss your mental health problems prior to commencing any counselling.

The consultation is free and lasts around 50 minutes.

During this consultation we will discuss the various types of psychological therapy that are available to you and make a considered recommendation based on your individual personal circumstances.

Initial consultations are also available as part of our online counselling service.

At Tranceform Psychology we emphasise the importance of the therapy relationship in helping people to bring about effective change, so its important to be able to ‘meet’ to discuss our change programmes BEFORE proceeding.

Our policy is to help people make a fully balanced & considered decision about undertaking mental health work with us, including both the financial and personal implications.