Brilliant Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 2nd Edition

Devising behavioural experiments that work

Data gathering

There are two basic types of behavioural experiment. The first is where you put yourself in a situation to make observations and collect information. This might involve seeing whether you do actually react in the way you anticipate when you confront a scenario likely to bring your problem to the fore.

Often the most common safety behaviour of all, avoidance, means that we ‘protect’ ourselves from certain situations because we fear what will happen to us. Our negative thoughts tell us that exposure to the problem would be terrible for us and, of course, the more we stay away the bigger the problem becomes in our head.

Remember: every time you act in a way that is consistent with your ...