All About Limiting Beliefs, What They Are and How You Can Change Them Using CBT in Wolverhampton & West Midlands

What are Limiting Beliefs?

Well, a limiting belief is ANY belief that you have that ‘limits’ your life in some way, or is in some way disadvantageous to you (be aware that what you believe might be advantageous may in fact be seriously limiting!).

But what does this mean?

Let me see if I can explain;

In order for human beings to ‘make sense’ of the world we inhabit, from an early age we create ‘codes’ that allow us to make sense of what we see and experience.

These ‘codes’ can be referred to as ‘belief systems’ and we will tend to use them in the same way, until something happens that makes us consider ‘modifying’ or even ‘re-writing’ them – this usually occurs when we encounter ‘contradictory’ information, something that indicates that our belief system is in need of ‘tweaking’ or is no longer ‘valid’.

I Believe in Santa Claus!

OK, I don’t, but I certainly did some years ago.

When I think back to those ‘heady’ days of my childhood I can easily remember the ‘nights before Christmas’ when I tried to go to sleep filled with the excitement of all the lovely presents that Santa was going to deliver to the bottom of my bed the next day.

My belief in Santa created a whole range of ‘lovely and exciting’ emotions and I would definitely say that this particular belief system ‘benefited’ me.

Of course, I don’t believe in Santa anymore, so something had to have ‘happened’ for me to change my belief.

What happened, in fact, was that I discovered my Christmas presents stored underneath my parent’s bed and was left with incontrovertible evidence that Santa could not be real.

Now of course believing in Santa is not particularly limiting, but there are many other beliefs which ARE.

Examples of Limiting Beliefs

• Walking on the cracks in the pavement brings bad luck
• If it’s not perfect it’s not good enough
• People in authority should be feared
• Phobias can never be changed
• The only way I could be a millionaire is if I win the Lottery
• You should always think about the mistakes you make
• The Earth is FLAT not round – visit Flat Earth Society
• Lucky charms influence outcomes
• Getting things wrong is bad
• You must ALWAYS respect your elders
• You cannot change the path of your life
• People are always out to ‘get’ you

Are Some Limiting Beliefs More Important Than Others?

Absolutely!

Despite the name ‘limiting beliefs’ there are some limiting beliefs that have very little impact on your day-to-day life, for example, “you should never wear brown shoes with black trousers” – it’s limiting because the underlying ‘idea’ behind this belief is that it will somehow ‘look wrong’ and that people observing this clothing ‘error’ will make a negative judgement about you.

The ‘reality’ is that the vast majority of people probably don’t care about your choice of shoe colour and it’s unlikely to to have any major negative impact on your life. Unless, that is, that you had a ‘boss’ who had the same belief and who fired you from your job for making this sartorial error. In which case, you have some real evidence to support this belief!

There are Three CORE Limiting Belief ‘Domains’

Whilst the vast majority of limiting beliefs have very little day-to-day impact, our beliefs-based CBT programme specifically draws attention to THREE ‘core’ beliefs that can have the most SIGNIFICANT impact.

These are:

1. Your ‘Locus of Control‘ – the beliefs you have about how much control you have over your ‘external’ life.
2. Social Pressure – the beliefs you have that determine how much you worry about social judgement or what people think about you (also known as Social Anxiety).
3. Self-Esteem – the beliefs you have in regard to yourself, how much you like yourself and how capable you believe you are.

You can read more detail about each of these ‘core’ limiting beliefs by clicking on each phrase.

Change Your Limiting Beliefs with Tranceformental CBT

Our 10 session programme of advanced cognitive behavioural therapy, the Tranceformental CBT programme, is especially designed to help you to:

• Identify
• Understand &
• Change

Your own specific limiting beliefs.

It is available as a fully supported 10 session programme either in the clinic or using Zoom video sessions and also as a self-managed programme containing 10 modules that progressively guide you through the full programme.

Free Initial Consultations

We offer all prospective clients a FREE initial consultation to discuss your limiting beliefs prior to commencing any treatment plans.

The consultation is free and lasts around 50 minutes.

During this consultation we will discuss the various therapy options 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 therapy service.

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

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