CBT and Salvation Religions
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most useful psychotherapy modalities in use today. The goal of CBT is to change someone's core beliefs. This is accomplished by targeting behaviors, thoughts, or feelings. If positive change can be sustained on the outside of the triangle, someone's negative core beliefs will eventually change as well.
As an example: if one of Nellie's core beliefs is that she is ugly, this might cause her to have thoughts such as 'no one wants to be friends with me' or 'I'll never have a girlfriend;' Her emotions might be sad and anxious; Her behavior might be isolating or not paying attention to her personal hygiene.
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If she begins CBT, and she is encouraged to change her behavior--maybe by improving her hygiene and trying to interact with others--this can help her feel better about herself, which can improve her mood. By spending time with others, she can realize that her automatic thoughts are incorrect i.e. 'people actually do like me,' all three points on the triangle have undergone positive change. With continued effort at sustaining the positive on the triangle, her core beliefs can also change. Successful CBT would be for her to have new beliefs that she is a beautiful person on the inside and outside.
The problem with salvation religions is that to accept the religion one accepts a negative core belief that cannot be changed. One is 'born bad.' From the standpoint of the religion this belief is necessary for its survival so that someone believes that only salvation offered by the religion can save them. To take the case of Christianity, being born sinful is not something that you can actually change--it is a necessary belief if you want to be a Christian. Thus Christianity has shame built into its very foundation. Furthermore, the emotion of guilt is used to control both behavior and the way one feels about themselves. Thus, both the core beliefs and the 'emotions' point on the triangle are unchanging negatives.
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