WEBVTT

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Now, when we have that type of thinking,

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"If only I had done this, it would have been different,"

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what happens is, in that example,

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is we develop emotions such as guilt and self-blame.

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And then comes anger and depression.

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And as long as we believe "shoulda-coulda-woulda,"

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we will have those same kinds of emotions.

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That's an example of the type of thinking that we work on

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in Cognitive Processing to get us unstuck,

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to look at more balanced beliefs about what happened

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because the truth is, you only knew what you knew in that firefight.

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You have no way of knowing now if you'd been 50 meters over here,

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rather than 50 meters over here,

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it would have made a difference at all.

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One of the things I love in CPT is the moment

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when the person I'm working with has this "aha moment."

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They're talking through the event, and they realize

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that the way that they used to think about it

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doesn't fit the whole situation.

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They're able to step back and say,

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"That doesn't make as much sense.

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Maybe it wasn't all my fault.

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Maybe I did make a good call."

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And then you just see that moment in therapy,

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then they're able to see things through a different lens,

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so they can feel less anxious and feel less guilty.