ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Our Thoughts and Beliefs are Both Knowable and Accessible. Between an external stimulus and an emotional response to it lie a person's thoughts about this event. Eliciting these thoughts helps the person to understand why she reacted in the way that she did to the event. Beck calls this 'tapping the internal communications' and states that clients can be trained 'to focus on their introspections in various situations. The person can then observe that a thought links the external stimulus with the emotional response'. Three levels of cognition behaviour negative automatic thoughts (NATs), assumptions/rules, and core beliefs in understanding emotional disorders. These levels usually correspond with the degree of difficulty in gaining access to them. Surface thoughts are usually on the fringe of awareness. Underlying assumptions/rules and core beliefs can be more difficult to gain access to. Peeling away layers of personal meaning makes explicit what was previously implicit.
