CBT Skills Groups for BC Residents

In this 8 week course, you will be introduced to a variety of mindfulness and compassion practices to support your wellbeing. Each session will be 1 hour and 45 minutes long and will include an opportunity to check in with the group, try different forms of mindfulness practice in session, share about your experiences in small groups, and explore how mindfulness may fit into your daily life. The emphasis will be on experiential learning and each session will include one longer practice (about 15-20 min in length typically) and several shorter practices. The course will be of most benefit to you if you are able to try some daily home practice between sessions. In contrast to Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, this series includes lovingkindness, compassion and gratitude cultivation practices along with mindful awareness practices.

In this 8-week course, you will be introduced to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy skills for managing anxiety and depression.

Most of us have experienced periods of difficulty with insomnia. The goal of this course is to help participants acquire a better understanding of sleep in general, of insomnia, and the obstacles which can interfere with restorative sleep. We will discuss the structure of sleep and the ways in which you may be able to more successfully manage any difficulties you experience. You will be asked to complete a weekly bedtime sleep diary and morning sleep log to help you to keep track of what skills you are able to successfully apply and the benefits you, hopefully, begin to experience.

The goal of this course is to help you understand how avoidance ‘works’, using material from the Foundations course. In particular, the False Promise of Avoidance will be discussed, as it applies to procrastination and perfectionism. We will work with the premise that avoidance is a move away from feelings (discomfort/fear). For example, procrastination allows one to avoid boredom, frustration, shame or even anger. Perfectionism will be examined as the flip side of procrastination, simply a different way of avoiding potential negative consequences. At the end of this course, you will hopefully be able to more accurate identify the feelings you hope to avoid and to examine the costs and benefits of such a response. We will use SMART goal setting as one technique to change unhelpful habits.

The overall goal of this course is to help participants understand, label and modify cognitive distortions. The concept of Core Beliefs will be reviewed and incorporated into the discussion. You will have time in small groups of 2 or 3 to refer back repeatedly to the Triangle of Experience, reminding oneself of the interactions between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It is important that you have enough time to learn about ‘untwisting’ distortions and to practice this skill in small groups. By the end of Session 4, you will, hopefully, have more confidence in your ability to identify and modify distortions.

The goal of this course is to help participants identify and prioritize personal values, clarified as: ‘What’s Important To You – At This Time’. The Triangle of Experience will form the basis for discussion, especially as the group moves into the discussion of obstacles: (what gets in the way of moving towards a value or a goal: thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Incorporating the concept of Core Beliefs and Cognitive Distortions is important in helping participants understand this area. Participants will work together in small groups and use tools including Smart goals and the pros and cons grid to take steps in the direction of what you identify as a priority value to focus on for the course.

This course offers an opportunity for you to learn ways to evaluate your own ability for self-compassion. We will use the Triangle of Experience to identify thoughts, feelings and behaviour which contribute to one’s difficulty practicing self compassion. This course reviews the many benefits of practicing self compassion and offers suggestions for strengthening your ability to take better care of your own needs.