Inference Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT or IBT)

IBT is a newer modality for the treatment of OCD and Anxiety based disorders. Inferences are educated guesses made about the world. When you clicked onto this website your best guess likely told you the page that would load would be about Strive to Thrive Therapy and not a how to guide for training rabbits. You came to this guess because of an unconscious reasoning process you went through using your observations, common sense and existing knowledge. In the course of a day you make all sorts of inferences. In OCD and Anxiety based disorders the brain uses tricks to confuse the inferences the individual makes. These disorders introduce self doubt and a story about who you are who you could become if you aren't careful and this changes the inferences made. From there an abstract story based on possibility comes in often with very scary consequences attached. For example, in an individual who doesn't worry they are neglectful when they pull out of their garage to go to work and observe that they pressed the button and the garage started closing, they make the inference that the garage is closed and the house is secure. For a person with a self story about being negligent they may close their garage in a similar manner and even watch it shut and then as they are driving away their self doubt begins to creep in. Believing that they are or could be negligent they wonder if they forgot to close their garage or maybe they pressed the button twice and even though the garage went down it might have gone up again. From there the possibilities grow and soon they have a story about someone breaking into their house going on in their mind which leads to the urge to drive back around the block to check and make sure the garage is closed. Can you see how OCD or an anxiety disorder caused inferential confusion in this example? Inference Based Therapy (IBT) also referred to as Inference Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT), starts by teaching you the tricks OCD and Anxiety based disorders use to keep you doubting and then from their works to increase trust in yourself. As this trust grows the grip and power the doubts have on your life begins to loosen and your actions begin to reflect that trust. As a result the story you have about yourself begins to change.