It Takes Effort and Time to Change What We Think and How We Act
Photo credit, Designed by Magnific, fair use
When working with client X, I recently analogized personal and professional care for mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”) to the difference between visiting and living in a home. Client X voiced comprehension of this matter, as I’ll now share it with you.
Since having begun the informal practice of life coaching in 1991, and having officially begun the practice of psychotherapy in 2011, a relatively lot of people have visited my analogous home. Yet, many of these individuals have served as little more than visitors, not potential occupants.
Now, as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) was formed by the late psychologist Albert Ellis, who reportedly developed the first cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) psychotherapeutic modality in 1955, this blog entry is part of an ongoing series regarding his book, Ask Albert Ellis?: Straight Answers and Sound Advice from America’s Best-Known Psychologist.
“I’ve shared REBT with many people,” I told client X. “They come into my mental health home, look around, comment on the furniture and decor, and anticipate or expect me to solve their problems.” Client X listened as I continued, “I’m selling these homes, not entertaining guests!”
As a homeowner, client X expressed understanding about how the analogous houses I’m selling by way of promoting REBT as a method of improving one’s level of functioning and quality of life requires dedicated action by the occupant of a home in order to make one’s place livable.
“I’m not living in these houses, as I have my own house in which I live,” I expressed to client X. It takes effort (conscious exertion of power: hard work) and time (the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues) to make things better.
Particularly, to change (to make different in some particular way or aspect) what we think (to form or have in the mind) and how we act (the doing of a thing), regarding one’s analogous mental health home, requires doing the work for livable conditions, as Ellis stated (page 27):
We’re prone biologically to think and feel and behave badly at times against our own interests and against the social interest of our culture and community. And then we learn these behaviors as well. It’s fairly easy using REBT to see what we’re doing, but it takes quite a lot of effort and often a period of time to change what we think – and thus how we act.
Client X grasped that each person to whom I’ve shown analogous homes is personally responsible and accountable for one’s own outcomes – that is, whether or not one will choose homeownership or merely visit a house of mental health, opting to instead live in the elements.
How about you? Because it takes effort and time to change what we think and how we act, will you decide to instead sleep in the rough? Many people do! Personally, as is the case pertaining to client X, putting forth considerable effort and time toward change is preferable to homelessness.
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
References:
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