Mental health articles

One of the values of the cognitive-behavioral approach is its techniques of recognizing and correcting cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are misguided beliefs about
reality, which are usually internalized by the client, who does not recognize their irrationality.
These distortions can be either positive or negative. For example, the client
can believe that everyone loves all of his jokes (positive overgeneralization distortion), thereby helping him to feel comfortable with his coworkers (even though he may actually
be offending them with his jokes), or he could feel that nobody would ever find
him funny (negative overgeneralization distortion), causing others to see him as cold and aloof. A coach can help the client see situations more rationally and objectively.
Freeman and Fusco (2000, pp. 38–39) present some cognitive distortions, with example
statements of what a mental health professional might hear in therapy. In each case,
an example has then been added to show how this might manifest itself in an organizational coaching setting:
All-or-nothing thinking: “I’m either a success or a failure.” “The world is either black or white.” The therapeutic response needs to move the patient from the extremes
to a more moderate belief. The modification here is minimal. Accept the patient’s
position and try to offer the smallest possible modification.
Coaching example: “I don’t like what’s happening here. I’m going to have to quit
my job.” The coach can explore with the client if there are any options between the
extremes of expecting the perfect workplace and quitting.
Mind reading: “They probably think that I’m incompetent.” “I just know that he or
she disapproves.” The therapist needs to offer a challenge by asking the patient to
identify the evidence of their mind reading ability.
Coaching example: “My boss must really hate me. She gave the assignment to Jim.”
The coach can ask the client about other situations and interactions with the boss. If
the client has gotten consistently good reviews from the boss, has received other
special assignments, and has always done good work, the client’s thought is likely to
be a distortion.
Emotional reasoning: “Because I feel inadequate, I am inadequate.” “I believe that I
must be funny to be liked, so it is fact.” Challenging the client to produce evidence
that supports this distortion can effectively break down this irrational belief style Coaching example: “I feel so nervous about this presentation. I’m going to do terribly,
and people will laugh.” The coach can discuss the naturalness of feeling anxiety
before important presentation, and how simply having that feeling does not mean the
presentation will go poorly. If the person has given major presentations before, and
felt very nervous before them with the end result that they went pretty well, discussing
this with the client may help correct this distortion.
Personalization: “That comment wasn’t just random, it must have been directed toward
me.” “Problems always emerge when I’m in a hurry.”
Coaching example: “The boss is really out to get me. I felt so humiliated in front of
everybody when she said that our sales figures were down this quarter during the
meeting.” Here again, the coach can explore what evidence there is for this assertion.
If the client is simply one of a number of salespeople, none of whom did well
last quarter, the coach can help the client see that it is irrational for him to accept all
of the blame personally.
Overgeneralization: “Everything I do turns out wrong.” “It doesn’t matter what my
choices are, they always fall flat.”
Coaching example: “Frank didn’t like my idea. He must think I’m stupid.” The
coach can ask the client to produce evidence that Frank thinks the client is stupid
just because he did not like one idea.
Catastrophizing: “If I go to the party, there will be terrible consequences.” “I’d better
not try because I might fail, and that would be awful.” The therapist may suggest
the patient produce a “disaster ” continuum and realistically identify the exact consequences
of each perceived catastrophe.
Coaching example: “I missed the deadline on that report. Now the boss is going to
fire me, I won’t be able to find another job, and my wife is going to leave me.” The
coach can help the client see that his wife leaving him is a pretty big stretch from
missing a report deadline (assuming the client is not experiencing any actual marital
difficulties). The coach can help put things into perspective by asking him such
things as how important the report truly was, and what the true chances are of him
getting fired just for missing one deadline.
Should statements: “I should visit my family every time they want me to.” “They
should be nicer to me.” Challenging the patient to “leave all shoulds outside” can assist
the patient in identifying what their own needs are versus what has been expected
or dictated by others’ rules.
Coaching example: “I should work harder. The boss keeps giving me more assignments,
and I should be able to get them all done.” The coach can help the client see
the impact of these “should” statements. The client may need to explore setting
boundaries, since there are limitations as to how much work human beings can be
expected to do, and if the client is working too much and too hard, it will affect the
quality of her work as well as the quality of her home life.
Control fallacies: “If I’m not in complete control all the time, I will go out of control.”
“I must be able to control all of the contingencies in my life.” Encouraging the
patient to view a less-controlled atmosphere creates additional options and may assist
the patient to feel less constricted and hopeless in their situation.
Coaching example: “I’m working my butt off trying to make sure my employees
do everything right, and I’m falling behind in my own duties.” Coaches can help supervisors see that they don’t need to be involved in every aspect of what their
employees are doing for the operation to run successfully. It can be difficult for
supervisors to let go of that sense of needing to control everything when they feel
overly responsible for their employees’ performance. Coaches can help these
clients reframe their role as facilitators rather than as taskmasters.
Comparing: “I’m not as competent as my coworkers or supervisors.” “Compared to
others there is clearly something flawed about me.” The therapist may encourage
self-appraisal versus other-appraisal as a mechanism to challenge the patient to
progress on an internal rather than external basis.
Coaching example: “Everyone else seems so calm and together when they make
their presentations during our meetings. My presentations are so poor I feel foolish.”
As with all cognitive distortions, the coach can approach this in many ways. First,
the coach can discuss how the important thing is to get information across to other
members, not to compete with them on how best to do it. Second, the coach may ask
the client to videotape herself giving a presentation. Chances are that even though
she feels nervous on the inside, she will appear more confident from the outside.
Heaven’s reward fallacy: “If I do everything perfectly here, I will be rewarded
later.” “I have to muddle through this life, maybe things will be better later.” The
patient needs to be redirected to experience life’s events in the “here-and-now” versus
putting all his or her eggs in the future basket.
Coaching example: “I really can’t stand my job. But if I stick with it for a few years,
my boss may give me a good promotion.” Some people feel that if they are not suffering,
something is wrong, and it is hard for them to conceptualize that things don’t
have to be that way. Some people may unconsciously think that their suffering will
get them more attention. A coach can help challenge some of these assumptions, and
help the client look at them objectively. The client in this case may simply not be
suited for the job she is in and may serve the company better doing a job that she is
more excited about.
Disqualifying the positive: “This success experience was only a fluke.” “The compliment
was unwarranted.” “I’m really a fraud and everyone will find out.” The
therapist can challenge the patient to list the positives or achievements that have actually
occurred.
Coaching example: “I’m really lucky that this project went as well as it did, considering
that I was involved with it.” If a client has a habitual pattern of not taking
credit for accomplishments, the coach can bring this to the client’s awareness. The
client may have been taught that it is important never to take credit for one’s work.
While it is important to always recognize other people’s contributions to one’s own
success, continually putting oneself down can become annoying to others. The
coach can help the client practice saying things like “Thank you, I worked very hard
on that project” when given a compliment. (As in all consultation work, the coach
needs to make sure that this intervention is appropriate given the client’s cultural
background and the context of the situation.)
Perfectionism: “I must do everything perfectly or I will be criticized and a failure.”
“An adequate job is akin to a failure.”
Coaching example: “I know you want that article for the company newsletter tomorrow,
but I’m going to need at least two weeks to write it.” Individuals engaging in
perfectionism tend to have a difficult time in a work setting, as their need to be persear fect causes them to take a great deal of time with everything they do. Such individuals
may also put off doing work for fear that they may not be able to do it perfectly.
A coach may help the client to choose his or her battles, and help the client to let go
of things that are less important to free up more time for the important things.
Selective abstraction: “The rest of the information doesn’t matter. This is the salient
point.” “I must focus on the negative details while I ignore and filter out all the positive
aspects of a situation.”
Coaching example: “I’ve got far more education than my employees. Why don’t
they just shut up and do things the way I think they should be done?” While we all
tend to look for information that supports our position and ignore information that
doesn’t, this can be dangerous in the business environment. The coach can help the
client to see that if one knows one is right, there is no harm in hearing about the
opinions of others. This allows other people to feel heard. Sometimes even very inexperienced
people can have brilliant, fresh perspectives on a situation.
Externalization of self-worth: “My worth depends on what others think of me.”
“They think, therefore I am.”
Coaching example: “I feel terrible. Bob was unhappy with my proposal this morning.
Sally seemed upset that I didn’t go to lunch with her. The customer I spoke with
this morning seemed angry that I couldn’t help far more.” The coach might respond
by saying, “It must be hard work carrying all those people around in your head all
day.” While it is natural for people to want others to like them, if one’s entire sense
of self-worth is based on others, one is likely to live on an emotional roller coaster.
The coach can help the client explore other, more internal sources of self-worth.
Fallacy of change: “You should change your behavior because I want you to.” “They
should act differently because I expect it.”
Coaching example: “It irks me to no end that my boss continues to insist that I give
presentations at every meeting, when I keep telling him that I don’t want to.” While
a desire to change things in our favor is a desirable coping skill, we truly do not have
the power to make other people change. If the client seems to be continually pushing
against an immovable brick wall, the coach can suggest that it might be better to try
another tactic. In this case, the coach could explore with the client other options that
may be available, such as getting the boss fired (not likely if his performance is otherwise
good), learning to like presentations (or at least to tolerate them), getting
transferred to another department, or looking for another job.
Fallacy of ignoring: “If I ignore it maybe it will go away.” “If I don’t pay attention I
will not be held responsible.”
Coaching example: “I know the employees are complaining about the new policies,
but they’ll eventually get used to them.” The coach can explore with the client how
well ignoring tactics have worked in the past. Generally, they tend to reduce anxiety
in the short run, but increase problems in the long run. By opening up to employee
feedback now, the employees will at least feel heard and will be less likely to build
up their resentment. They may even have some viable suggestions for improvement.
A small amount of effort now can save a lot of hassles down the road.
Fallacy of fairness: “Life should be fair.” “People should all be fair.”
Coaching example: “I’ve been here for three years, and George has only been here
for six months. It’s not fair that he got promoted and I did not.” While we all feel unfairly treated from time to time, one of the signs of maturity is being able to recognize
that life is simply not fair. If an individual continuously complains about the
fairness of things, the coach can point out that this is common and redirect the
client’s energies toward strategies for helping him get what he wants and needs in
the future.
Being right: “I must prove that I am right because being wrong is unthinkable.” “To
be wrong is to be a bad person.”
Coaching example: “The predictions I gave were inaccurate because the team gave
me bad numbers.” Some people feel a need to always be right, perhaps due to the
need to feel important in the eyes of others. However, no one likes people who cannot
admit they are wrong, and this damages working relationships. The coach may
be able to help clients take the reverse point of view—how would they feel if they
knew someone else who was wrong, but would not admit it? The coach can help
clients nurture a new belief that admitting when one is wrong actually strengthens
relationships. Clients can begin to practice doing this, noting how people are reacting
to that approach.
Fallacy of attachment: “I can’t live without a man.” “If I was in a relationship, all of
my problems would be solved.”
Coaching example: “I know I’ve been fired four times in the last year, but I just
haven’t found the right boss to work for.” Similar to a romantic relationship, some
individuals may feel that they need the perfect relationship with their supervisor.
The coach can help clients explore more of their own contributions to being happy
and productive in the workplace.
As mental health professionals know from their work in psychotherapy, one should
look for pervasive patterns of cognitive distortions before labeling them as such.
Sometimes clients simply need to emote, and the coach does not necessarily need to intervene.
It is also important to consider that these cognitive distortions may have roots
in traumatic past events. The coach should attempt as much as possible to base interventions
on the impact that such distortions have on clients’ performance in the workplace
and should refer clients for psychotherapy if they desire to do more work on
dealing with traumatic past events.