10 Steps to Help You Define the Problem and the Solution | Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Welcome to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Nuggets. I'm your host, Dr. Donnellice Snipes. In this video, we're going to be talking about problem formulation. And for this I've developed the mnemonic device Peace Corps. The Peace Corps approach to problem formulation will help you explore what's going on, what is triggering your distress at the current moment. So P stands for problem. Write down somewhere. And I'm a big fan of writing things down. You don't have to write it down in long sentences, but jot it down so you can see it. Write down what the problem is. E stands for early experiences with whatever problem is going on right now. How does this relate to other experiences you've had in the past? How is it similar and how is it different? And it's important to look at how it's both similar and different because the similar may be impacting how you're reacting right now, but the difference may help you draw on skills that you have now that you didn't have back then. A stands for what are your assumptions, rules and attitudes about the current situation? A lot of times when we experience distress, our assumptions, rules and attitud are not accurate. They can be extreme or overgeneralized, such as all dogs are vicious. Well, is that true? Are there any exceptions to this? And it's important to try to remove some of those extreme words and replace them with more moderate words. Instead of saying all dogs, you might say some dogs or many dogs or police dogs. Categorize it the other way. That a lot of our assumptions, rules and attitudes may be inaccurate is when we use if then statements. A lot of times these statements set us up to expect something when we don't necessarily know what's going to happen next. So an if then statement can be, if I'm not perfect, then I will be rejected. If I'm not perfect, then I'm a complete failure. You notice we have extreme language in here, too. Perfect and complete failure. Perfect and rejected, ostensibly by everybody. So it's important to address our if then statements. If I am not perfect, what realistically is going to happen? And we're going to talk about some of the ways to deal with that in a minute. Right now, the peace part of it is just identifying the problem and our core beliefs and reasons we're reacting the way we are. So your problem, your early experiences, your assumptions about the situation, your core beliefs about the world, about yourself, about what should happen, and shoulds are entirely different. Video. But a lot of times shoulds are things that we expect and when they don't happen, we feel upset, we feel a loss of control. But shoulds are things in in the future. We don't know exactly what should be done all the time. So examining your core beliefs and then E stands for effectiveness of your assumptions, core beliefs and reactions. This is very similar to the ABCs and the four Ps. It's just a matter of finding a method that works for you. So to sum up peace, you identify the problem. You identify how this problem is similar to prior early experiences that you've had and how it's different from those early experiences. You explore your assumptions, rules and attitudes about the situation, trying to identify any words or phrases that are extreme or over generalized. You explore your core beliefs about the situation and about the world in relation to this situation. And then you evaluate your effectiveness of your assumptions, core beliefs and reactions. Are these assumptions, core beliefs and reactions helping you or making you miserable? All right, once you have that down, then you move over to the core part of of Peace Corps. Evaluate the context. In this context right now, in this current situation, at this current time, is my reaction effective? Are my assumptions correct? And are my core beliefs helping me? If not, move down to options. What options do I have for for adjusting my core beliefs? What options do I have for modifying or softening my rules and attitudes? Moving down to resources. You know, sometimes life sucks. Let's just face it. So even in the current context, even if you adjust your assumptions, things may not feel all happy and warm and fuzzy. So what resources do you have that can help you deal with that? Your current coping skills, your strengths, your friends? You know what resources are available? If you use your resources and you use your abilities, what is the probability that bad things are actually going to happen? And S stands for support. Who can you re reach out to? Where can you find support to help you get through this particular situation? And yes, I know support is also up there under resources, but I need an needed an S for core. So you have context. Evaluate the context and see if you're assumptions, rules, attitudes, core beliefs and reactions are accurate and helpful. Evaluate your options. How else could you view the situation? How else could you react to the situation that might be more helpful? Identify resources that can help you cope with the situation. Remember that it's important to explore the probability of that bad things are actually going to happen. We may jump to the worst case scenario, but what is the likelihood? What is the probability that that worst case is actually going to happen? And seek support. Find people who can help support you, either by providing encouragement or by providing practical support.