DTR in Psychotherapy

Dysfunctional Thought Record (DTR).

Dysfunctional thoughts are those which cause psychological discomforts to the person and their severity may lead to major psychological disorders as depression etc. Aaron T. Beck proposed the dysfunctional thoughts and he suggests that most of these thoughts are behind mental difficulties. Everyone, in life face these dysfunctional or irrational thoughts which cause disturbances to them, but it can be alternate to rational thought which regulate the mood or emotions in positive manner.

As a Psychologist or Psychotherapist we deal clients with set of therapeutic techniques, famous is CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy). Dysfunctional Thought Record (DTR) is one of them and it works efficiently. Thought Records are cognitive restructuring techniques which encouraged balanced thinking.

The basic purpose of making DTR is to write down or doing the analysis of the situation which causes discomfort to life and noticing that how the alternative rational thought changes the mood/emotion and make the person calm.

DTR is basically about making a chart or table of Thoughts, which cause disturbances to the life, and analysing that how an alternative thought can change the person’s emotions.

you should practice this for observing and noticing the astonished results of this Therapeutic technique.

Make a simple chart of these 6 columns Mention the Date/time, situation, Negative emotion(about the situation), irrational belief (false notion), with scaling as (1-10) Now think an alternative thought/belief (Positive). By Thinking an alternative Positive thought or belief, emotions can regulate or turn from negative to positive, from sad to relax.