A Clinician's Guide to CBT for Children to Young Adults. Paul Stallard

feelings, or how they could behave in different ways.

      The second process, self‐efficacy, relates to how effectively young people use their skills, strengths, and personal resources to positively secure their goals and resolve their difficulties. The CORE philosophy aims to strengthen self‐efficacy and the belief that the young person has strengths and skills that can be positively used to improve their well‐being. Enhancing self‐efficacy can be motivating and empower greater engagement. A key aspect of self‐efficacy is the accurate recognition of one’s own strengths, skills, and abilities. The Socratic process can help young people attend to situations where they have coped/ been successful and identify what they did on those occasions that was helpful. Self‐efficacy can be developed by inviting the young person to consider how these skills could be used in other situations or to help with other problems. Similarly, self‐monitoring provides useful feedback about helpful skills and strategies that may already be within the young person’s repertoire. Highlighting these can strengthen the young person’s beliefs that they can overcome their problems and do something to improve their well‐being.

      Finally, self‐control is the ability to regulate behaviour, emotions, and thoughts. Through CBT, the young person develops effective self‐management skills which help them to feel more confident, in control, and able to deal with future challenges. This concept of self‐control is promoted throughout CBT through the development of skills. Active skills can include the development of emotional management techniques or thought challenging that promote greater control by actively attempting to challenge and change distressing emotions or thoughts. Behavioural experiments provide a way of developing and demonstrating self‐control through the practice of new skills. Finally, self‐control can be promoted using mindfulness, distress tolerance, acceptance, and compassion‐based skills. Rather than actively attempting to change feelings or thoughts, a sense of self‐control can be promoted by learning to accept what is occurring.

      In summary, empowerment promotes increased knowledge, recognition of strengths and skills, and enhanced perceptions of self‐efficacy and self‐control. The CORE philosophy is therefore positive and empowering, designed to motivate the young person to use their strengths and skills to maintain their well‐being and to deal with future challenges.