ABSTRACT

Underlying beliefs are often difficult to articulate and painful to acknowledge. The best-known way to identify underlying beliefs is the downward arrow technique. It is important for clients to define the precise components that make up their unhelpful belief as well as the new, more helpful belief that they are trying adopt. The cognitive continuum is a tool for reshaping all-or-nothing underlying beliefs like "I'm a failure" or "I'm unlovable". Many mental health professionals use the terms schema and core belief interchangeably. Research has demonstrated that imagery rescripting is an efficacious approach for depression, PTSD, social anxiety, and snake phobia. The core feature of Trial-based cognitive therapy (TBCT) is an extensive thought record in which unhelpful beliefs, conceptualized as a self-accusation, are targeted for restructuring. A unique intervention incorporated into metacognitive therapy is attention training, consisting of techniques that aim to regulate thinking and modify unhelpful metacognitive beliefs.