I was very excited to interview therapist Samantha Osborne in a discussion about anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), insomnia and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).  I had been wanting to interview someone for a long time on CBT because it is so effective for conditions like anxiety, insomnia, and IBS.  We discussed why we develop the thoughts that we do as well as beliefs and emotions and the many triggers of these conditions.  We also covered some excellent CBT strategies to overcoming these conditions that you can do on your own.

Below is a transcript on Anxiety, IBS, Insomnia and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Dr. Hedberg: Well, welcome everyone to "Functional Medicine Research." I'm Dr. Hedberg. And I'm really looking forward to my conversation today with Samantha Osborne. And Samantha is an Asheville based therapist and she serves busy professionals with anxiety and irritable bowel syndrome. She's certified in cognitive behavioral therapy and integrated mental health techniques. Samantha uses a variety of approaches to help clients move from feeling burned out and overwhelmed by their to do's to engaged and excited by their work and life.

She earned her master's degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and has been a featured speaker in several publications including "The Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast" and "Abundant Practice Podcast." And when she's not serving clients, you'll find her taking long walks with her poodle and listening to her favorite podcast. So welcome to the show, Samantha.

Samantha: Thank you so much.

Dr. Hedberg: So I've been wanting to have someone on for a long time to talk about cognitive behavioral therapy. So this was really serendipitous. And why don't we begin by just laying some bedrock information about, you know, what is the cognitive behavioral model and how does it explain where our thoughts, emotions, and our behaviors come from?

Samantha: So CBT is basically a model of therapy that says that circumstances are really neutral. So no matter what happens in the world, that's not really what's determining our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, it's just information, is an invitation to that. And then we have thoughts about those circumstances that lead to our emotions that lead to behavior that ultimately determine our results. And so CBT says that our thoughts really originate from, you know, different circumstances that we've had in our lives, you know, all kinds of home media, cultural expectations. Essentially they're formed really early, these core beliefs are, and then they're sort of hardened and solidified over time with different input that we're getting from the environment.

Dr. Hedberg: And kind of that behavioral therapy is based on the ancient philosophy of stoicism, is that correct?

Samantha: I believe so.

Dr. Hedberg: Some of my patients know I'm a big fan of stoicism, stoic philosophy, which, you know, it's my understanding that CBT comes from that particular philosophy. And, I know that, you know, from what I know about CBT, it's very effective for anxiety and other mood disorders and insomnia and also IBS, which we'll be talking about today. So if our thoughts don't come from circumstances, where do they really originate from?

Samantha: So our thoughts really come from core beliefs about ourselves and the environment. So you know, when we are kids we have different kinds of experiences that teach us about who we are and what the world is like fundamentally.