Cognitive behavior modification

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Cognitive Behavior Modification (CBM) is a therapeutic technique in which clients challenge their internal beliefs and assumptions regarding matters that are upsetting them. The objective is to eliminate debilitating cognitions and replace them with productive ones. In turn, these new conceptions must transform the clients’ behaviors and relieve their unhappiness or suffering.

Essentially, CBM attempts to change a person’s behavior through changing how they think and how they talk to themselves. Instead of focusing upon the modification of external stimuli, CBM therapies concentrate on techniques that modify the internal cognitive patterns of a person in order to affect behavior.

For example, many people have beliefs that are self-fulfilling prophecies such as, “I am a failure.” This internal self-image is repeatedly proven to be true because the belief is both a conclusion and a prediction. Any examples of success will be ignored or simply not perceived as such because the belief is destructive.