Struggling with negative emotions? Try Moodgym
Posted by kathryn in Work life integration
Moodgym is a fantastic online resource that I’ve referred countless patients to.
It’s a free, interactive site which utilises Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques to explore issues around:
Why you feel the way you do? Changing the way you think. Changing ‘warped’ thoughts. Knowing what makes you upset.
Moodgym includes information, demonstrations, mood exercises, all bound together in short interactive modules. You can do a few modules in one session, or simply save your answers and come back to it later.
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
CBT is a counselling tool that emphasises the close relationship between how we think, feel and act. While negative stuff happens in everybody’s life, how we react to those situations is largely dependent on the way we think about them. Sometimes our thoughts around our lives can be pretty negative and we can end up feeling miserable, stressed and upset, often over little things.
CBT is not about suppressing your feelings, or changing who you are and it’s also not about constantly positive thinking. Instead CBT enphasises realistic thinking and perspective. The idea being if you can think about your life and circumstances in a more healthy way, you’ll be less prone to getting upset.
I think of CBT as one of those life skills we all need to learn to be happier, so try out Moodgym.
If you want to know more, you could also take a look at Sarah Edelman’s excellent, practical guide to CBT Change Your Thinking.
02 August, 2007
Comments
Very interesting, thanks so much for this!
No worries Mallika, it’s a great resource.
Kathryn, you are a blessing. As a 9/11 survivor who is just starting to feel PTSD after 6 years, I’ve been looking into a stint with a cognitive therapist. (I certainly don’t need any of that childhood, Freudian mumbo-jumbo) but practical ways to retraining the thinking that trips the emotions. Thanks for featuring this. I didn’t know there was an interactive site available. Though I may, indeed, need one-on-one therapy, this is a great place to test the waters.
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