Decatestrophizing
Decatestrophizing is a technique in cognitive therapy, used for Reality testing and correcting automatic thoughts. Cognitive therapy 'aims explicitly to "Re-energizes" the reality testing system'. Cognitive therapy teaches clients adaptive meta-cognition - how to think about thinking - so that they can correct faulty cognitive processing and develop assumptions that allow them to cope.
Clients are told that the goal of cognitive therapy is for them to learn and become their own therapist; goal includes: Monitor negative automatic thoughts, Recognize connections between cognition, affect and behavior, Examine and reality-test evidence for and against distorted automatic thoughts, Substitute more realistic interpretation.
Learn to identify and alter beliefs that predispose them to distort their experiences. In decatestrophizing the basic question is "So what happens?". This brings out the event's probability and severity, the client's coping capacity and support factors and his ability to deal with the worst possible outcomes. It is not applicable for patients with brain organicity.