Arguing with the shampoo again? 

For whatever reason, the shower is the prime location for rumination. Maybe you’re mentally arguing with your partner, boss, or parent - lathering, rinsing, and repeating the same fight every day. Or perhaps you’re fixating on a painful thought like “I’m a failure” and scrutinizing your life for any evidence to prove it. Or you could be awaiting some looming catastrophe that you’re certain will happen… until it doesn’t, and then it’s on to the next “guaranteed” disaster. 

The cognitive snow trench

The more you think about something, the more likely you are to keep thinking about it. Your brain is like a fresh snowdrift: it’s much easier to walk along a pre-trodden path than to trek through the powder. Your thoughts follow the same "paths" of least resistance.

If those paths are negative, your emotions - anxiety, depression, self-loathing - follow right along. These feelings lead to behaviours like avoidance, procrastination, or self-sabotage, which ultimately produce negative life results that "prove" that your initial painful thought was right. It’s a closed loop, and it’s exhausting.

Upgrading your internal software

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the gold standard for identifying and dismantling these negative patterns. We aren’t just going to talk about your feelings - we’re going to perform a strategic recalibration of your mindset.

• The Context: We’ll look at your history without judgment to discover how your past experiences shape your current worldview.

• The Mapping: We’ll chart the core beliefs that you hold about yourself and the world, pinpointing exactly where habits like "all-or-nothing" thinking or catastrophizing are steering you off course.

• The Recalibration: We’ll collaborate on shaping a perspective that is flexible, grounded in reality, and aligned with your goals. 

This isn’t simply about positive thinking. Rather, this is about reframing your own thoughts so that they feel genuine and useful. My aim is for you to walk away with a toolkit of cognitive skills that actually work in the real world and are applicable both now and in future situations. Fill out the form below, email me at sue@suebedfordpsychotherapy.com or click here to book a session.