Tim LeBon's September Newsletter - new Low Cost CBT Scheme (cognitive therapy) & new book on Positivity

New Cost CBT Scheme in London for Stress, Depression, Anxiety or Low Self-Esteem

One in five people in the UK suffer from depressive symptoms. Many others suffer from anxiety-related symptoms  such as stress at work, social anxiety, general anxiety, panic attacks or phobias. Who knows how many other people are seriously adversely affected by  other,  less diagnosed problems  like low self-esteem.  What can be done to help?

Whereas a few years ago there was little but anecdotes and  personal prejudice to choose between any number of therapies, now  the evidence for dealing with these problems clearly  points  to the efficacy of one type of therapy.
And its name is .... CBT - or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
Whilst I myself would advocate (and indeed practice) philosophical counselling,  coaching  and existential psychotherapy for help with  making wise decisions and changing direction in life, I've come to  recognise that CBT is the treatment of choice for many of the more common and  specific psychological problems many people face. If you go for CBT you are picking an evidence-based, practical therapy designed to produce results relatively quickly.
If you think it's time to give CBT a try,  I'd recommend first of all consulting your GP.
It's possible that you may be able to get CBT on the NHS in your area, though it isnt available  in all areas and even if it is there may well be a waiting list. If NHS CBT isn't available quickly, then  I may be able to help.
I have just started a low-cost therapy scheme  for clients  with  stress or other anxiety issues,  depression or self-esteem related problems.
The therapy will normally be for up to 12 individual weekly sessions. The fee will be just  £30 per 50 minute session.
Acceptance to the scheme is subject to suitability and places are strictly limited.
Sessions are held in Fleet St, London.

If you are interested in more details then please contact me asap on tim@timlebon.com


For more information about CBT including links to other free resouces see my CBT web page

It begins ...

CBT  (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is one of the most popular and respected forms of therapy practised in the UK, probably because it is evidence-based and can produce results  relatively quickly.  The central idea of  CBT is that our emotions are connected to our thoughts. By becoming aware of your thoughts, and substituting realistic thoughts for unrealistic ones, you can overcome emotional difficulties such as depression, anxiety as well as low self-esteem and relationship issues.

Although coming to prominence in the 1960s through Albert Ellis’s REBT and in the 1970s through Aaron Beck’s Cognitive model its roots lie in the ancient philosophy of the Stoics. Epictetus’s “ People are disturbed not by things but by the views which they take of them” is not so very different from David Burns’s: “By learning to change your thoughts, you can change the way you feel”

Read more

To find out more about the low-cost CBT scheme, e-mail me at tim@timlebon.com asap

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One of the most interesting books I read over the summer was the long-awaited Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson.

Barbara Fredrickson is a hard-nosed social scientist, who since the inception of positive psychology has often been cited and praised as the originator of the Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions.

In this, her first book, Fredrickson sets out her ideas for the general reader, adding personal anectdotes and speculations to hard data. The book includes a positivity toolkit to help the reader raise their own positivity. Overall, I enjoyed this book and think it is a useful addition to the positive psychology literature. I think it can even tell us something useful about "the good life". But I do have some reservations, which I'll come on to later.

The Broaden-and-Build theory has been concisely summarised by its author as follows:-

"I encapsulate two classes of these benefits into my broaden-and-build theory. First, when we experience a positive emotion, our vision literally expands, allowing us to make creative connections, see our oneness with others, and face our problems with clear eyes (a.k.a. the broaden effect). Second, as we make a habit of seeking out these pleasing states, we change and grow, becoming better versions of ourselves, developing the tools we need to make the most out of life (the build effect). And strikingly, these twin benefits of positive emotions obey a tipping point: When positive emotions outnumber negative emotions by at least 3 to 1, these benefits accrue, yet below this same ratio, they don't."

So - when we are positive we become more open and creative (positive emotions broaden us) and we also grow (they build us). But, surprisingly, only when the positive outweighs the negative by more than 3 to 1. Fredrickson is arguing for positivity as a means to the good life - whether or not feeling good is itself the good life, feeling good (in these ways) helps us get in to a state where we are more likely to achieve these and other elements of the good life. This is an important point for philosophers to bear in mind - hedonism (the idea that happiness/pleasure and the absence o pain is the good life) has had a hard time recently but if it's really true that positive experiences are a means to other parts of the good life (creativity, achievement, making a difference) then a refined version of hedonism may appear more attractive.

But note well that Fredrickson does not equate positivity with pleasure. Far from it, she actually excludes bodily pleasures from her definition, since they narrow your focus and meet a survival need - whereas her ten positive emotions broaden your focus and, in the long run, she claims, "matter most" (p. 38)

So what are these top ten positive emotions?

• Interest
• Awe
• Hope
• Serenity
• Joy
• Inspiration
• Gratitude
• Pride
• Amusement
• Love

I personally remember these by the acronym

                I HAS JIG PALWrite to me if you can think of a better acronym!

Now this is very interesting. What Fredrickson has done is suggest 10 emotions which can also be considered as candidate values, as parts of the good life. If it's true that they are good in themselves and also broaden and build us, then their candidacy looks promising. Indeed, I'd like all of these to be part of my life - though there are of course questions about their appropriateness to a particular situation and getting the right balance (bring back Aristotle!). I also wondered whether all of these were really emotions and why some other possibles had been left out (e.g. sense of purpose, sense of meaning, being loved versus being loving, friendship, empathy, compassion). Fredrickson says her ten are "colour people's lives the most" (p. 39) but I wonder how she found this out.

My second problem is similar to the one Eric Wiener expresses in his review. Hard-nosed data has its value, but sometimes it seems to only confirm the bleedin'obvious and on other occasions its difficult to distinguish the author's own speculations from ideas that have firm backing. This is particularly true when it comes to the Positivity Toolkit. The ideas here are all plausible enough - be open, create connections, cultivate kindnes, develop distractions, dispute negative thinking, find nearby nature, learn and apply your strengths etc - and some have solid scientific backing. But this section does come across as a bit of a hotch-potch of techniques rather than a tried-and-tested programme that is guarenteed to raise your positivity.

Which brings me to my third and final issue with the book. One finding that certainly can't be criticised as being mere common-sense is the discovery that there is a tipping point of 3 to 1. If you have twice as many positive as negative experiences you wont start to get the broaden-and-build benefits. They only start accruing above 3 to 1. But what follows from this is surely that we should focus more on reducing negative episodes than increasing positive ones. Suppose I have 3 negative episodes a day and 6 positive ones. My positivity ratio is 2 - not high enough! But to get it up to 3 I either need to add 3 more positive ones or have 1 less negative one - so the effort should be in reducing negative episodes. It seems kind of ironic that a book on positivity has this implication - should we actually be spending more energy on using techniques such as that advocated by CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) than on those aimed at increasing positivity?

Overall, though, I'd recommend this book. Fredrickson has a jaunty style, comes across as basically human and likeable (not always the case in social science books) and does provide a lot useful tips as well as an authoritative account of her own research.

Read On

Positivity website including on-line tests and tools http://www.positivityratio.com/

Positive Positivity review with short summary

http://solutionfocusedchange.blogspot.com/2009/05/review-of-positivity.html

Eric Wiener's balanced Washingon Post Review http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012703102.html

Academic paper by Fredrickson and Losada

http://www.unc.edu/peplab/publications/human_flourishing.pdf

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Have a great September

Tim

http://www.timlebon.com