Column technique

One of the most important cognitive-behavioral interventions from which everybody can benefit is “cognitive restructuring”. Your thereby learn to identify the thoughts through which you harm yourself and how to change this negativity into positive realistic thougts step by step.

These negative thoughts are commonly derived from childhood. They contain messages we have learned in the first years of our lives. This could be sentences like “Your little brother has always been brainier than you” or “You are really the clumsy oaf of the family”. In particular, if you are feeling blue, these sentences come into your consciousness and are paralyzing.

In case you sometimes are self-deprecating, you should try the column technique as a device for cognitive reframing. Before you start to replace the defeatist thoughts in your mind, you have to determine which sentences are the sentences you slam yourself with. This procedure hurts, but is helpful as well. Afterwards you search for thoughts that are encouraging!

Below you can find some example sentences. But be honest. You must first spend one week realizing the individual sentences with which you slam yourself.

Hollon S.D. & Beck A.T. (2013). Cognitive Therapy of Depression. In P.C. Kendall & S.D. Hollon (Hrsg.): Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions: Theory, Research, and Procedure. New York (USA): Academic Press. S. 153-204.

Application

During the next two weeks carry a small notebook with you and directly make a list after a stressful situation. Ask yourself what you are thinking about yourself at that moment? Afterwards, think about positive (and reasonable) thoughts. The following table is a template.

• Date

• Situation

  Small description of the situation, which triggered the negative feelings

• Feeling & Evaluation

  Which feeling (e.g. fear, nervousness)?

  How strong was the feeling? (1 to 100%)

• Automatic thought

  Which negative thoughts went through your mind spontaneously? What was the reason for your negative feelings?

  To what extent do you think your worries are appropriate? (0 to 100%)

• Rational thought

  Write down alternative / realistic thoughts.

  To what extent do you think your thoughts are realistic? (0 to 100%)

• Result

  Re-evaluate how appropriate your negative thought is (0 to 100%).

  How do you feel now that you have reviewed, relativized your situation?

Hollon S.D. & Beck A.T. (2013). Cognitive Therapy of Depression. In: P.C. Kendall & S.D. Hollon (Hrsg.) Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions: Theory, Research, and Procedure (S.161). New York (USA): Academic Press.

Examples of cognitive restructuring

The following table gives some examples of how to formulate alternative or positive thoughts.

Negative Thought	Positive Thought
I can‘t do that. It is too difficult.	I already achieved some difficult things!
All of the others are better than me.	Other people might have problems, too!
Criticism again, I give up.	Hang in there!
It‘s gonna be a catastrophe if I do not finish that by Friday.	In 20 years, I will think differently about that.
It won‘t work. With me it‘s always going wrong.	Sometimes things end up well for me.
It is always me who gets the difficult tasks.	Now I can show what I am able to do.
Nobody cares about me.	Lovely people are there for me.
This is typical for me – I simply muck up everything	Some things are not that bad.

Tip: For not forgetting the good thoughts – write them down on a piece of paper, – store them in a mobile phone, – speak them out loud (and save them via a dictation function), – say them after waking up in the morning – think about them at the end of relaxation training.