Therapy for Habit Transformation in Chicago
Do you want to change habits that no longer serve you?
Habits are not about willpower. Most habits form as automatic responses to specific cues (boredom, stress, a notification) that trigger a behavior and deliver some kind of reward, like dopamine.
Our brains love dopamine! Dopamine activates the reward circuit in our brain, and we learn to seek out actions or items that activate this center. Some are good (connection! safety!) and some are not as good (13 hours of candy crush! 100 TikTok videos! Drugs!)
Our brains value energy and efficiency, and an automatic response supports both; it gets rid of the energy needed for conscious decisions and relies on the trusty, developed neural pathways that are already created (automatic responses, or, in this context, habits).
Plus. That dopamine hit!
Our work together in individual therapy for habit transformation can include changing your relationship with phone usage, mild to moderate substance use, organization, routine building, and building healthy habits, like movement, sleep, and hobbies.
Our Approach to Habit Transformation
Therapists at Common Thread Counseling use techniques to gain insight, form a plan, and target the cycle as well as providing a supportive environment, reflection, and gentle accountability.
We’ll talk through your motivation to change, previous attempts, barriers to changing, come up with strategies together, and monitor your progress.
Habit change can often feel discouraging. Therapists at Common Thread Counseling Chicago provide a space to work through the potential guilt or self-criticism that can sometimes show up, and reframe setbacks using a growth mindset.
In habit transformation therapy, we don’t treat goals as linear, or pass/fail; all parts of the process have valuable information that we can explore together to create sustainable change while developing psychological flexibility.
Techniques We Use at Our Therapy Practice
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The most evidence-backed approach for habits; focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and directly targets the patterns that maintain a habit.
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Helps you make room for uncomfortable urges/emotions without acting on them, while committing to actions aligned with your values, as well as practicing cognitive defusion.
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Dialectical behavioral therapy, which is useful when habits are tied to emotional regulation difficulties; teaches distress tolerance, mindfulness, and alternative coping skills.
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Motivational Interviewing, or MI, is particularly well-suited to habit change. Rather than telling you why you should cut back on your phone, MI works from the assumption that most people already feel some ambivalence - a part of them wants to change, and a part of them doesn't. We will explore that ambivalence out loud: What does the habit actually give you? What would they lose by changing it? What would they gain? Genuinely sitting with both sides helps unearth intrinsic reasons for change, which tend to be far more meaningful and…motivational. MI emphasizes autonomy, meaning the goal isn't to convince someone to change, but to help them clarify what they actually want for themselves, then support movement in that direction at their own pace.
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Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) is a shorter-term, goals-oriented approach that emphasizes what's already working and builds on small successes rather than dwelling on the problem's origins..
Practical Skills We Teach
Trigger identification - Recognizing the specifics that trigger the habit
Urge surfing - A mindfulness technique used to ride out a craving without acting on it, knowing it will naturally peak and fade
Thought-checking - Catching an automatic justification in the moment ("just this once," "I'll start tomorrow") and testing whether it's actually true
The pause - Creating delay between urge and action
Replacement behaviors - A list of healthier alternative actions that meet the same underlying need (stress relief, boredom, connection)
If-then planning - Developing an action plan for high-risk situations so decisions aren't made on the spot
Self-monitoring - Tracking the habit (frequency, context, mood) in order to spot patterns and measure progress
Environmental design - Adjusting surroundings (what's visible, accessible, or convenient) to make the desired behavior easier and the habit harder
Communicating needs/boundaries - Being able to ask for support or say no to situations that make the habit more likely, without guilt or over-explaining
