Self Talk -- What You Tell Yourself Matters

This book focuses on helping you to fight negative thinking. There is a lot of material here that we think will be very useful for you. We have broken the book into six mini-sections to make it easier for you to “digest” the information. You should take as much time as you'd like to work through each section.

The mini-sections are:

• Making Sense of a Traumatic Experience
• Negative Beliefs about Stress Reactions
• Negative Thinking Patterns
• List of Challenging Questions
• Guilt, Shame, and Thinking Patterns
• Identifying Your Personal Negative Self-Talk
• Developing and Practicing Your Personal "Counterarguments"

Table of Contents

The Way Ahead
Self –Talk
Making Sense of a Traumatic Experience
Changed Beliefs.
Self-Talk Matters!
Self-Talk and Recovery from Trauma.
Is it Wrong to Think This Way?
Beliefs and Judgments are Not the Same Things as "Facts".
The Connection between Thoughts and Feelings.
Negative Beliefs about Stress Reactions
Understanding Body Sensations.
Counter-arguments are Important.
Useful Counter-Arguments.
Summary.
Negative Thinking Patterns
Eight Patterns to Avoid.
List of Challenging Questions
Guilt, Shame, and Thinking Patterns
Thinking Patterns that Cause Feelings of Guilt.
Identifying Your Personal Negative Self-Talk
Negative Trauma-Related Beliefs
Developing and Practicing Your Personal "Counter-Arguments"
Useful Counter-Arguments
Remember!
Keeping a Self-Talk Record.
Summary