This is going to be long:

My T used CBT and REBT quite a bit, but he NEVER did the whole worksheet thing, and he didn't get all hung up on labeling thinking errors, etc. I think one of the problems and reasons why CBT often doesn't work well for people is that it is used by therapists who can't seem to get beyond the "textbook" and actually apply it individually to the actual client sitting in front of them. I also dislike that it is often termed a "short-term" therapy and that many label it as only for very surface-level work. NONE of those descriptions applied to how my therapist applied behavioral work in my therapy at all, yet he most definitely was using CBT and probably more specifically REBT in our sessions probably at least half of the time.

What my therapist did was to work with me consistently and diligently in the skill of recognizing when I have been triggered and exactly how to work my way out of that triggered reaction through some very step-by-step methods that on the surface were very easy but in practice took years to be able to internalize (which is why I think behavioral work generally does need to be long-term work, particularly when you are working to counteract decades of skewed thinking about the self that resulted from very young exposure to abuse).

So what did it look like in practice? Okay, I might go into session all worked up about something -- maybe something happened at school that has me all upset and anxious and angry. My therapist would work with me to work backwards from my upsettedness which was generally way out of proportion to the actual event. Rather than waste time blaming the incident or person that I say upset me, my T helped me recognize that when my emotional reaction is out of proportion to the current event, there is something going on in my thinking that is probably much older and much more self-engrained into my psyche that I need to figure out.

So, what was I thinking just before I got upset? "Well, I was angry because X was accusing me of Y." Again, the initial impulse is to focus on the current event, but the reality is the thought is older than that.

What was I thinking before that? This is harder because it happens in such a split second and almost on a subconscious level that I don't recognize it, but it IS there. Well, "I was thinking 'How dare X blame me for Y when I did nothing wrong!'" Closer.

What was the thought underlying that? Well, "I hate it when I am blamed wrongly." Better.

Where does that come from? Well, repeatedly my abuser said X to put the blame for my own abuse on me. Good.

How did that leave you feeling? I felt great shame and I'm tired of feeling shame over other people's grievous errors. Good. So, when X did this today, that triggered that old thinking which is where my reaction came from.

(Editing to add: This is where I don't agree when people say behavioral methods ignore history. It is at this spot that sessions could take some time and get rather intense as we explored that history specifically as it pertained to my emotional response at that moment. There is NOTHING surface-level about that kind of work.)

Can I set the old stuff aside and look at what happened today as the adult I am today? How can I look at the current event differently? And we'd process the current event, this time without the old baggage attached. My anxiety and anger would subside and I could think clearly enough to actively problem-solve the current event.

We did this over and over and over again until I could finally do this without him walking me through it. I finally internalized the process so that I could actively set my past where it belonged -- in the past -- and deal with my present in much more effective ways. Learning how to do this has effectively brought my once very severe PTSD reactions pretty much to a halt, has effectively given me strategies so that I am no longer debilitated by anxiety and depression, and has effectively calmed my whole being. I finally have some inner peace and have the ability to find that peace within myself, even at times when my world around me is highly stressful.

That's the power of behavioral techniques IF they are truly internalized with the help of a therapist who really knows what they are doing.