“In behavioral therapy, we focus on how the problem works, not what it’s called.”
A label can describe a pattern—anxious, impulsive, avoidant, perfectionistic. But therapy needs to go further. We ask what keeps the pattern going: What happens before it? What follows it? What rules are you living by? And does the behavior still work in the context you’re in today?
Understanding how a problem works gives us somewhere to intervene.