There are many different and successful psychotherapy approaches, each with a unique name to describe what it is focussing on to bring insight and change in the individual. In my view, the ultimate goals of the various psychotherapies are shared. Their differences have to do with what they target to attain a successful outcome, and/or with the starting point from which to assist the individual to attain insight.
The basic commonalities of the psychotherapies are:
- Working with the triad of emotions, thoughts, and actions (behaviour).
- Working to achieve insight regarding the self and the other in relationship.
- The insight of points 1) and 2) achieves an awareness of dysfunctional versus functional dynamics; the motivated individual works to attain change towards the functional.
The insight is sought either by facilitating self-discovery or by interpretation of the therapist.
The basic theory of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), a popular and successful psychotherapeutic program, is that negative and irrational thoughts lead to unwanted negative emotions, anger, depression, anxiety, addictive tendencies, etc. The work of CBT is to help the individual attain insight into negative and irrational thoughts and change them into positive and rational thoughts. The theory is that by doing so, the individual experiences fewer unwanted negative emotions; their anger, depression, anxiety, etc., is therefore relieved. This approach has been studied and shown to be a benefit, and it makes logical sense that it does.
Constructive Mindset Therapy (CMT), a program developed by Dr. Ralph Sinn, has a different twist and starting point in comparison with the CBT perspective. In CMT, the starting point is from emotions rather than thoughts. It is believed that there are basic human emotions, some positive and some negative. It is the negative emotions that are the most problematic for people (although the positive can be problematic too!). The negative emotions sensitize a person to an injustice. When the injustice occurs and the person experiences the negative emotions of hurt, frustration, fear, anger, etc., CMT explores what mindset the individual forms in the context of the emotions and thoughts they experience.
The CMT method studies the difference between what is called forming the destructive mindset versus forming the constructive mindset. This approach differs from CBT in terminology. As opposed to gaining insight in negative versus positive and irrational versus rational thoughts, CMT looks at gaining insight in forming the destructive versus forming the constructive mindset. The theory of CMT is that the destructive mindset results in more and complicated negative emotions, which can lead further to anger problems, depression, anxiety, addictive tendencies, etc. Forming the constructive mindset, on the other hand, breaks the dysfunctional cycle and leads the individual toward fulfillment, creativity, and hope.
Although many similarities to CBT are recognized, the work of forming the constructive mindset in the CMT approach has unique features. To date, there are no studies to rate the effectiveness of CMT; its practical effectiveness is noted anecdotally through work with hundreds of individuals. However, since CMT has aspects in common with CBT, it is expected that studies of CMT would show similar results as with CBT.