Brilliant Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 2nd Edition

Revising your formulation in the light of new evidence

We have already noted that there appeared to be only a partial correspondence between what Peter felt in response to the trigger and the emotions he experienced immediately afterwards. This is not to say that the thought processes Peter had uncovered were invalid or irrelevant, but his activated core belief ‘I am a failure’ did not fully account for either his behaviour or subsequent physiological response on this occasion.

The thought he had uncovered is more typically connected with more passive, depressive patterns that usually encourage the person to withdraw into himself. Peter’s response was very different. He had initially come out ‘all guns blazing’, so having fed this new information ...