Healthy Thinking
Welcome to the Family Support Group Program.
Here you can download the session PDF below by clicking on the button or continue scrolling to the online version. The videos password is craft.
Session Online Version
CHECK-IN SECTION – Maximum time 20 minutes
Mindful Minute -- take a break from what you have been doing, breathe deeply, relax and recharge.
Step 1: Find a comfortable seated position with both feet grounded on the floor. Put a hand on your stomach. Close your eyes.
Step 2: Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Notice your thoughts and feelings and any tensions in your body.
Step 3: As you inhale and exhale, breathe deeply so your belly fills and empties with air. The hand on your stomach helps you practice belly – not chest breathing.
Step 4: For the next minute make breathing in and out your only focus. Let your thoughts come and go without trying to control them. If you find an area of tension in your body, relax it and let the tension go.
Step 5: At the end the minute slowly open your eyes. Gently bring your presence back to your surroundings.
Our Purpose
CRAFT Connects’ Family Support groups are for parents, partners, families and other Concerned Significant Others (CSOs) who have a loved one that is struggling with a substance use or mental health disorder. We know from first-hand experience that loving someone with these challenges can be a difficult, lonely journey. To create a safe place for honest sharing of our lived experience we use appropriate language and behavior. We are empathetic, nonjudgmental, genuine, respectful, steer clear of confrontation and imposing our own solutions. We encourage hope and compassion for all. CRAFT Connect helps to reframe and energize connections between you, your loved one and behavioral health professionals into a “therapeutic alliance” that leads to progress and healing. There is a lot we can learn from one another.
What experience did you have practicing CRAFT Connect principles and skills? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
What did you do to purposefully take care of yourself and show self-compassion? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
LEARN SECTION – Maximum time 30 minutes
1. "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”, Shakespeare. Inaccurate thoughts can be our own worst enemy. Thinking errors are irrational thoughts that can influence how we feel about ourselves and others. We all experience these thoughts at times, but when they are frequent, they can be harmful to our emotional health. Thinking errors are a form of judgment – judging self or others. We should always be careful when making judgments, and try to make sure our judgments are accurate.
2. For example, imagine that your car got a flat tire on a freeway off ramp. It’s a dangerous place to try and change a tire alone so you are hoping someone will stop. You see your best friend or a family member exiting the freeway down the off ramp. They look right at you, speed up and then pass right by you. You try reaching them on their cell phone, but they don’t answer. How would you feel? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. You discover later that a small child was in the car that you didn’t see and that was seriously hurt. Your friend or family member who passed you on the freeway off ramp, was desperately trying to get to the hospital to save the life of the child. Knowing this new fact, how would you feel? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Inaccurate thinking patterns can trigger negative emotions. They lead us to feel bad about ourselves and others. We all experience these thoughts at times, but sometimes we get stuck in them and don’t see these pattern and how it hurts our emotional health. Common thinking errors like those listed below can lead us to see the worst possible outcomes to any situation:
· All or Nothing – evaluating things and placing them into an extreme category – totally ugly, absolutely beautiful, complete failure, brilliant success. It may include seeing only the worst possible outcomes to a situation.
· Mislabeling – creating a negative image or drawing a broad conclusion based on a single deficiency or event.
· Jumping to Conclusions – making a negative judgment not justified by the facts, or based on one negative detail.
· Microscope Thinking – Looking at a deficiency and exaggerating its importance. Also includes playing down or minimizing good points.
· Personalizing – Assuming responsibility for an event not your fault.
· Emotional Reasoning – Taking your feelings as evidence that something is real.
· Carnival Thinking – Interpreting the thoughts of others (mind-reading) or predicting bad outcomes (fortune telling) without adequate evidence.
· Should Statements – Telling yourself or others how things should be.
IDENTIFY THINKING ERRORS ACTIVITY
The first step in overcoming thinking errors is to honestly and objectively identify when we may be using them.
Step 1: Read the following Situation/Thought examples and circle the inaccurate thinking patterns that may apply.
Step 2: Now think of a real-life situation/though where you may have used a thinking error and write that down. (You will use the same situation in the two activities that follow.)
Step 3: Circle the inaccurate thinking patterns that may apply to your own situation/thought.
Example 1
Situation/Thought: “I saw the way Mary Jones looked at me when my kids were noisy at the school meeting. She thinks I am a bad parent, and the rest of the PTA probably feels the same.”
Inaccurate Thinking Patterns:
All or Nothing
Mislabeling
Jumping to Conclusions
Microscope Thinking
Personalizing
Emotional Reasoning
Carnival Thinking.
Should Statements
Example 2
Situation/Thought: “I saw several people drifting off during my presentation at work. I am sure everyone found it boring.”
Inaccurate Thinking Patterns:
All or Nothing
Mislabeling
Jumping to Conclusions
Microscope Thinking
Personalizing
Emotional Reasoning
Carnival Thinking.
Should Statements
Your Real-Life Situation/Thought: ___________________________________________________________________________________
Inaccurate Thinking Patterns:
All or Nothing
Mislabeling
Jumping to Conclusions
Microscope Thinking
Personalizing
Emotional Reasoning
Carnival Thinking
Should Statements
Step 4: Share your real-life situation and thinking errors with the group.
5. The second step in overcoming thinking errors is to challenge them. To challenge something is to confront, question, or dispute an idea or belief. Below is a list of challenges you can use to evaluate thinking errors you may be using.
· Is this thought true and accurate? What evidence is there to show that my understanding of this situation may not be accurate?
· If my perception is really true, does it make me a bad person? Does it make those involved bad people?
· What would I tell my best friend if they had these kind of negative thoughts?
· Is thinking this way helpful to me or is it just distressing me?
· What would be so bad if my thought proved to be accurate? Would it be a catastrophe, or the end of the world?
CHALLENGE THINKING ERRORS ACTIVITY
Step 1: Using the Situation/Thought examples from the last activity, write your own challenge questions that could help you change inaccurate thinking patterns. Use the same Real-Life Situation/Thought you wrote in the first activity.
Example 1
Situation/Thought: “I saw the way Mary Jones looked at me when my kids were noisy at the school meeting. She thinks I am a bad parent, and the rest of the PTA probably feels the same.”
Thinking Error Challenge Questions: “Am I really a bad parent?” “Does the fact that I feel this way make it true?” “Are all parents with noisy kids’ bad parents too?
Example 2
Situation/Thought: “I saw several people drifting off during my presentation at work. I am sure everyone found it boring.”
Thinking Error Challenge Questions: ________________________________________________________________________________
Your Real-Life
Situation/Thought: _______________________________________________________________________________________________
Thinking Error Challenge Questions: ________________________________________________________________________________
Discuss: How did the challenge questions help you gain a new perspective on these situation, thoughts or impressions?______________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. After we have identified and challenged our thinking errors, the third step is to replace judgmental thinking with more accurate statements. Using the same examples, including your own real-life situation/thought, from the last two activities apply some challenges questions to the thinking errors and come up with more accurate statement about these situation/thoughts.
MORE ACCURATE THOUGHTS ACTIVITY
Example 1
Situation/Thought: “I saw the way Mary Jones looked at me when my kids were noisy at the school meeting. She thinks I am a bad parent, and the rest of the PTA probably feels the same.”
More Accurate Thoughts: “Mary’s kids are also noisy, but she is not a bad parent. I am sure most people in the PTA feel the same. I’m trying my best and so is she.” “Even if Mary thinks that, it’s not the end of the world.”
Example 2
Situation/Thought: “I saw several people drifting off during my presentation at work. I am sure everyone found it boring.”
More Accurate Thoughts: __________________________________________________________________________________________
Your Real-Life Situation/Thought: ___________________________________________________________________________________
More Accurate Thoughts:
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Discuss: What are some of the challenges we may face as we try and become more accurate in our thinking?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. “That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet) The fourth step in learning to think differently is no different than learning any new skill –practice, practice, practice. As we learn a new skill, our brains, even as we age, creates new connections that make our brains, and the succeeding thoughts we have, more efficient, which requires less effort, as it becomes more automatic the more we practice.
GROUP SHARING SECTION – Maximum time 30 minutes
8. We will now begin the sharing portion of the meeting. You are invited to share from 3 to 5 minutes about your experience as it relates to your loved one’s recovery, this week’s session or what you are currently working on. Please focus your sharing on potential solutions rather than the problems. We will conclude the sharing five minutes before the end of the meeting. Who would like to begin?
MY COMMITMENTS SECTION – Maximum time 10 minutes
9. Please remember that what has been shared here is confidential and that the opinions expressed are of the individuals who shared them. These are the group commitments, we will start the next CRAFT Connect session by reporting on our commitments. This week I will:
A. Do the in-between session assignments:
• Use the “Thought Management Help Worksheet” to identify, challenge, replace, and practice thought management for two situations.
B. Share what I learned with my family, friends and community.
C. Show kindness for myself by self-care.
As you listen to a song about connection, take a few minutes to quietly think about what you learned in this session. Write your thoughts and personal commitments below.
What are the most important things I learned?______________________________________________________________________________________________________
What will I do differently because of what I learned?______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thought Management Help Worksheet
1. Real Life Situation/Thought. Describe the situation and what your initial thoughts were.
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Inaccurate Thinking Pattern. What type of thinking errors did you use in the situation?
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More Accurate Thoughts. Challenging your initial thoughts write down more rational, accurate responses
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2. Real Life Situation/Thought. Describe the situation and what your initial thoughts were.
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Inaccurate Thinking Pattern. What type of thinking errors did you use in the situation?
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More Accurate Thoughts. Challenging your initial thoughts write down more rational, accurate responses
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3. Real Life Situation/Thought. Describe the situation and what your initial thoughts were.
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Inaccurate Thinking Pattern. What type of thinking errors did you use in the situation?
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More Accurate Thoughts. Challenging your initial thoughts write down more rational, accurate responses
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