What Is a Typical CBT Session with Dr. Shinar Like?
CBT is administered in many different formats, and Dr. Shinar tailors sessions to a patient’s individual needs. Each session’s agenda provides a benchmark for identifying when the discussion is straying off course.
Early sessions typically involve an introduction to CBT, the structure of sessions, and setting and refining therapy goals (making them specific, realistic, and actionable), as well as developing action plans for what the patient will do outside of the office.
Subsequent sessions focus on identifying the most important life situations affecting the patient and developing coping skills to handle those situations. CBT helps in processing new experiences and finding new ways to handle setbacks. It adjusts the old rules to align with present-day life.
For each agenda item, Dr. Shinar and his patients decide on tackling, they work together to reverse-engineer the challenge. They try to better understand its nature, including a review of the impact of thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and other factors that have interfered with handling the situation.
Using the CBT framework breaks down the big challenges into specific tactics for navigating transition points in a day — getting up and off to work on time, starting a project that you’ve been avoiding, or setting a time to review a daily planner — which increases coping skills.
These coping skills are strategized in a session, written down as reminders, and used between sessions.
When Can I Expect to See Results working with Dr. Shinar?
Results come quickly. CBT typically yields benefits after only 16 to 20 sessions. However, most patients continue with CBT much longer, as it emphasizes long-term maintenance of coping skills and improvements.
In fact, the length of time spent in treatment — over many months, say — is as important as the number of sessions a person undergoes.
Dr. Shinar’s CBT aims to help individuals make sustained changes in their daily lives. A patient typically stretches out sessions weekly and eventually biweekly over six months to turn his/her new skills into habits and to weave them into his/her lifestyle.
This allows time and practice for mastering coping strategies for paying monthly bills, organizing work or school issues, and pursuing other tasks and endeavors in real-time.
Some individuals return to CBT with Dr. Shinar for “booster sessions” to address a challenge if they’ve fallen into old habits.
Some resume CBT to adapt their coping skills to a major life change, such as having a child or losing a job.
