Socratic questioning is a widely used and highly beneficial therapy technique used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In fact, the Socratic method of questioning is a standard practice in psychotherapy, including other behavioral therapies. When engaging with Socratic questions, you practice deep, rational thinking to help you come to logical conclusions. Often, mental health disorders cause negative thinking patterns that aren’t based on reality. Thus, Socratic questioning is effective at teaching individuals better patterns of thinking, which also influences their feelings and responses.
What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of behavioral therapy. This psychotherapy, or talk therapy, began in the 1960s and has remained a popular therapy method. Since its origin, it has been extensively studied and concluded to be effective for treating issues in children, adults, couples, and families. Notably, it’s an effective treatment for a number of behavioral disorders, trauma disorders, mood disorders, substance disorders, and dual diagnoses. CBT focuses on helping individuals recognize their negative patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Further, the concept of the CBT triangle connects feelings, emotions, and actions into one repetitive cycle. Because negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors influence each other to lead to overall unwellness, CBT breaks the cycle.
Key elements of CBT include rationality and logic. These principles are used when viewing one’s thoughts and feelings to assess them for validity. During therapy sessions, your behavioral therapist will help you identify and challenge your negative patterns. They will also help you replace bad habits with positive ones. One of the CBT techniques they may use is Socratic questioning.
What Is Socratic Questioning in CBT?
Socratic questioning is a teaching method that is utilized in cognitive behavioral therapy. The intention is for clients and therapists to have a conversation that leads to greater rationalization of their negative thoughts. The therapist will ask open-ended questions that lead the client to realize the answers are simple and true. Most importantly, they’ll realize the answers are in opposition to their original negative beliefs. A large part of Socratic questioning is the client coming to conclusions as led by their therapist. Thus, the individual forms a better sense of reality. This process is called cognitive restructuring because it leads people to reassess their thoughts and thinking habits.
Where Did Socratic Questioning Come From?
As the name indicates, the Socratic method of questioning originates with the famous philosopher Socrates. He believed a deep understanding of complex ideas could be gained from asking intentional questions. Notably, Socrates is attributed to developing the concept of critical thinking, which is a key part of cognitive behavioral therapy. As a whole, psychotherapy is largely influenced by Socratic questions. Therapists lead clients to discover truths about themselves by answering questions rather than giving out answers.
What Can Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Treat?
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a beneficial treatment method for a wide range of mental health disorders. Typically, people with psychiatric disorders have similar negative thinking habits that are defined as cognitive distortions. For instance, they may engage in catastrophizing, predicting outcomes, overgeneralization, and focusing on the negative. Since many mental illnesses have such thinking patterns in common, CBT can treat them similarly. Its focus on the logical assessment of thoughts and feelings leads clients to better mental management.
CBT for Substance Use Disorders
Substance use disorders (SUD) include drug abuse and alcohol abuse. These mind-altering substances affect the brain by modifying neurochemistry over time. As such, SUD causes changes in one’s mood, behavior, and thinking, similar to the way mental disorders do. Substance use disorders are chronic conditions unless treated by a professional treatment center, as drugs and alcohol lead to lasting addiction. CBT helps individuals break free from the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors centered around their dependency on substances. As part of our intervention for substance addiction, we offer a complementary approach, including medication and traditional and holistic therapy.
CBT for Mental Health Disorders
Additionally, CBT is a beneficial treatment for mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders. Additionally, trauma-focused CBT is beneficial for trauma disorders like PTSD. In sum, mental illnesses that have symptoms of unhealthy or unrewarding thinking, feeling, or behaving can be treated with CBT.
CBT for Co-Occurring Disorders
Oftentimes, individuals with a substance use disorder also battle with a mental disorder and vice versa. The exact roots of co-occurring disorders vary on the case. Sometimes, poor mental health leads to substance abuse, while sometimes, heavy substance use leads to mental illness. Regardless of the onset, there is a strong link between SUDs and mental disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy is just as effective at treating illnesses together as it is one-on-one. Because they are connected, they worsen each other. Thus, entering therapy for your connected issues is a wise choice.
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Speak With Our Admissions TeamHow Does Socratic Questioning During CBT Help?
CBT Socratic questioning asks open-ended questions to lead to deep thinking about a problem, such as a negative belief system. Markedly, the process is about dialogue that leads to a greater overall understanding, and sometimes there is no answer. Instead, the goal is to create more logical thinking habits rather than being led by personal emotions and thoughts. Thus, Socratic questioning in therapy helps the individual better understand themself and their situation. They can also better rationalize other people’s motivations, intentions, and behaviors. Then, in troublesome situations, the individual focuses on their response while staying open about the other person’s feelings or thoughts. Additionally, Socratic questions foster better critical thinking skills that a person can use when faced with triggers. CBT tends to be fairly short-term, as the individual learns tools and skills they carry with them into the future.
Identify Cognitive Distortions
As mentioned, cognitive distortions are thinking patterns many individuals struggle with across a wide range of mental health disorders. These thought habits can be automatic, emotion-based, and unrealistic. Yet, the person having the thought feels certain about their logic and can’t see other viewpoints. Cognitive behavioral therapy for cognitive distortions is an extremely helpful teaching. Essentially, individuals work to re-train their minds to dismiss distressing thoughts as they view each thought and feeling for validity.
Catastrophizing
One common cognitive distortion is catastrophizing, which is when one focuses on a negative outcome. People who get trapped in the pattern of catastrophic thinking naturally believe the worst possible outcome is most likely. Thus, their minds will dread the negative outcome they believe is coming. This can put them into a state of hopelessness. Additionally, catastrophizing leads to feelings of intense overwhelm about the situation when, in reality, it is manageable.
Black-and-White Thinking
Black-and-white thinking is a mental pattern where a person sees things under one of two poles. With this type of thinking, situations, people, and feelings fall under one opposite category, and there is no grey area. For instance, they will believe an outcome can either be amazing or terrible rather than somewhere in the middle.
Overgeneralizing
Overgeneralizing is when one applies one situation or outcome to all other ones. To a large degree, overgeneralization leads people to form negative core beliefs. On the other hand, overgeneralizing can help you pinpoint a core belief that is triggering the thought. For example, an overgeneralization is that one rejection means you’re unlovable.
Promoting Alternative Perspectives
Socratic questioning in CBT helps individuals get outside of their heads and consider others’ perspectives. Sometimes, it can be impossible to understand other viewpoints on your own because you reach the end of your knowledge. However, with CBT, it’s possible to feel a greater sense of peace about others’ behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. Your therapist may lead you through different cognitive reframing tasks, like considering other people’s perspectives about a situation.
Reframing Negative Thoughts
Additionally, positive reframing is a CBT technique where individuals practice intentionally shifting their negative focus to a positive one. For example, they could consider the positive side of a “bad” situation. They could also think about whether a negative outcome is more likely than a positive one and why. They will be led to consider the opposite to be truer. Such CBT practices retrain the brain to be more positively positioned.
Building Problem-Solving Skills
Through thought reframing, alternate perspective exploration, and asking deep questions, CBT clients develop problem-solving abilities. In fact, the ability to problem-solve independently is one goal of CBT. Then, when faced with situations in their daily life, clients can tackle them in healthy ways.
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Check Your CoverageExamples of Socratic Questioning During CBT
Clearly, asking Socratic questions is a beneficial practice that helps improve the mental health symptoms of cognitive distortion. The six types of Socratic questions are:
- Questions for clarification
- Questions that address assumptions
- Questions that ask for evidence
- Questions about perspective
- Questions that address consequences
- Questions asked about questions
If you still aren’t sure what the Socratic question method looks like, here are some Socratic questioning examples.
- What are the consequences of that assumption?
- What’s the worst-case scenario, and how likely is it to happen?
- What is a different way to look at it?
- What’s the evidence for and against this belief?
- Is this an assumption, or do I know it is accurate?
Finding a Therapist Who Offers Socratic Questioning During CBT
If you’re ready to begin the process of cognitive behavioral therapy for your mental health, Aliya Health Group is a great place to start. Our licensed therapists are well-trained in the Socratic method. They are equipped to lead you to develop better thinking habits.
Along with Socratic questioning in behavioral therapy, we offer a variety of therapy techniques to help individuals heal from unhealthy patterns. Please know there is no shame in needing help to manage your mental illness symptoms. Our mental health services can help you overcome your mental disorder, substance use disorder, and co-occurring issues. Please reach out today to begin CBT therapy at one of our comfortable facilities.
