Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Blog

Parenting Tips on Effective Ignoring   

Posted by Emily Cole on 02/22/2012 - 10:50

Many parents ask how they can handle yelling, whining, bad words, and other attention-seeking behaviors in their young children. If you’re a parent dealing with these behaviors, you may have tried begging, negotiating, or disciplining without success and are left feeling frustrated. The good news is that it IS possible to reduce attention-seeking behaviors, and the single best way to do so is through ignoring. Ignoring teaches your child that you are not going to reward her acting out with your attention (positive OR negative). Here are some tips on how to effectively ignore...

Facing Your Fears: Dispelling the Myths of Exposure Therapy   

Posted by LitsaTanner on 02/17/2012 - 13:57

One of the backbones of cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety is exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is when the therapist helps the client face feared situations in a systematic and gradual manner in order to help the person overcome their fears and thus reduce the amount of anxiety and fear they experience. 

It is true that at first people feel anxious when facing their fears, and less anxious when they avoid their fears. The problem with avoidance is that we are sending the message to our...

Trouble Sleeping? You're Not Alone!   

Posted by Jennifer Shannon on 02/10/2012 - 13:58

Six million Americans develop chronic insomnia.  If you are one of them, it is not your life stressors that set you apart, but rather how you react to not sleeping both in what you are thinking and things you are doing, that actually make the problem worse.

Most everyone has trouble sleeping at some point in his or her lives.  Very common life events we all deal with can adversely affect our sleep. Things such as going away to college, relationships, having children, vacations, loss of a loved one, or financial insecurities, all can cause sleepless nights.

What...

Parenting Tips: How To Get Your Child To Sleep In Their Own Bed   

Posted by LitsaTanner on 02/06/2012 - 10:53

Many children who have slept in their parents’ bed regularly will make the transition to their own bed and room very seamlessly. For these families the child just naturally starts showing more interested in their own room and bed (the excitement of a “big boy/girl bed” often helps in the process) and they put up little fight to sleeping in their own bed. Unfortunately, not all kids make this transition so easily. If your child is having a hard time making the transition into their own bed, here are some helpful tips to make the process a little less painful for both you...

Parent Tips: How Long Should Time-Outs Be?   

Posted by LitsaTanner on 01/25/2012 - 11:58

Time-outs can be very effective in managing behavior problems in young children ranging from not listening or following directions to hitting and other aggressive behaviors.

One of the most common questions parents ask when talking about time-outs is,  

“How long should a time-out be?”

Most often what people have heard is -- one minute per year of age. This can become problematic though when you have multiple children in the house of varying ages. How do I justify to my 7 year old son why he has to sit in timeout for longer than his 5...

Affordable High Quality Cognitive Behavioral Therapy   

Posted by Jennifer Shannon on 01/17/2012 - 11:40

At the Santa Rosa Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy we believe in providing the most effective and up to date therapy that is affordable.  We are able to do this through our internship program. 

What is an Intern?

Our interns have a Master's Degree in clinical counseling.  They are registered with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences and are working toward accruing 3,000 hours of supervised clinical practice they need to become licensed therapists.

We have chosen interns who are dedicated to learning...

Group Therapy for Social Anxiety   

Posted by Jennifer Shannon on 01/11/2012 - 15:56

At our Center we have groups for people with social anxiety.

What Is Social Anxiety?

Social anxiety is actually the most common type of anxiety disorder there is.  It is a fear of being observed and negatively judged by others.  Probably the most familiar anxiety people can relate to is public speaking.  In fact there is a Jerry Seinfeld joke that at a funeral the average person would rather be in the casket than be giving the eulogy.

Social anxiety goes way beyond just a fear of public speaking. If you have...

Harm Obsession OCD: Beyond Hand Washing and Orderliness   

Posted by LitsaTanner on 01/04/2012 - 10:32

In recent years public awareness of OCD has increased dramatically. As a result when we think of OCD we tend to think of germaphobes who can’t touch door knobs or shake peoples’ hands without washing excessively afterward, or we think of characters like Monk who have to have everything arranged symmetrically or organized just so. The reality is that fears of contamination and the need for symmetry/orderliness are just a few of the ways OCD effects people’s lives. Another common type of OCD that most people are not aware of is often referred to as Harm Obsession OCD....

Parenting Tips for Dealing with Your Child in Public Places   

Posted by Emily Cole on 12/22/2011 - 12:08

Many parents struggle with managing their child’s behavior in public. Handling behaviors like whining, yelling, and all-out tantrums are challenging anytime, but being in public can add to the stress parents feel. Strangers may watch your child or make comments, which can lead to embarrassment. Often this means that you may let your child get away with something that would not be acceptable at home.

Here are some ways you can make outings smoother for you and your child

Good public behavior starts before you even leave the...

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?   

Posted by Jennifer Shannon on 12/14/2011 - 12:15

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT is a brief and effective treatment for many types of issues such as insomnia, anxiety and depression.  But what does it really mean.

Well, the C stands for cognitive, or what you are thinking.  We often believe everything we think, and this can cause a lot of problems for us.  When people are feeling depressed, we know their thoughts change to ones of hopelessness about their life and their future.  It is almost like a black cloud comes over them and casts their thoughts in a shadow of doom and gloom....