The Benefits Of Seeing A Cognitive Psychologist

Updated February 9, 2023by MyTherapist Editorial Team

Many types of psychologists can help you better yourself and resolve any problems you may be facing. In this post, we will discuss the benefits of psychology therapy upon seeing a cognitive psychologist. What do they do? How can they help you?

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What Is A Cognitive Psychologist?

A cognitive psychologist is someone who studies the mind and how we think. In the past few centuries, we've made progress in discovering how the mind works, but there are still many mysteries that we don't know about. There are plenty of times when you don't know someone's rationale behind what they do. You may not even know your rationale. Why can't your mind remember where you left your keys but remembers the lyrics from this song you listened to 10 years ago? Why do you make the decisions you make?

Besides helping you to understand your mind better, cognitive psychology is used to treat people. Those who have memory problems, brain injuries, or have other disorders that affect how one can think may benefit from cognitive psychology. One such example is problems with attention. Cognitive psychologists know why the brain focuses on certain objects. A cognitive psychologist can help you figure out how you can focus your attention on the things that can benefit you.

Cognitive psychologists tend to be researchers, being contracted by the government or universities to study the mind and do research. However, there is a cognitive psychologist who serves the public and helps clients improve their memory. They have their practices or may work in hospitals or mental health clinics.

Who Can Benefit From Seeing A Cognitive Psychologist?

A cognitive psychologist helps those who want to improve their memory or focus or help those who have brain injuries that may prevent them from functioning as fully as they want to. You can improve your overall mental health and live a more productive life.

Here are some services they can help you with.

Degenerative Brain Diseases

Dementia, such as Alzheimer's, can cause the brain to forget people, cognitive functions and require the patient to be in someone's care at all times. While there is no cure or way to halt the prognosis, cognitive therapy can slow down the prognosis and allow the patient to live a longer, more independent life. A psychologist may use memory improvement techniques to help those with dementia remember people.

Brain Injury

A brain injury can cause cognitive problems. Some brain injuries can heal with time, but others can cause permanent damage. Brain injuries usually come in blunt trauma, or you could be born with a certain part of your brain not fully developed. Someone who has a brain injury and is suffering from cognitive problems can benefit from seeing a psychologist. A cognitive psychologist can work around the injury and let the patient live a healthier life.

For Mental Health Problems

There are many mental health issues that cognitive therapy can help treat. For example, negative thoughts can make depression and anxiety worse. You may think negative thoughts as opposed to positive, motivational thoughts. Some forms of therapy are designed to make you think more positively.

Also, depression can affect your memory and focus. A cognitive psychologist can help you improve in those factors as well.

Sensory Issues

There are perceptual or sensory issues that can affect you and make you experience the world around you differently. This can be due to trauma, disease, or another factor. A cognitive psychologist can teach you to improve your sensory issues and allow you to return to an easier life.

Learning Disabilities

Some people have problems learning. This may be due to the inability to recall information or the ability to focus. A cognitive psychologist helps those who have learning disabilities improve their studying and find ways to learn tailored to the client's needs. Having a learning disability does not make you dumb or unable to learn. Instead, it means you learn differently than other people, and you must find the best way for you to learn.

For Those Who Want To Get Over A Phobia

Having a phobia can be a minor annoyance. If you see a spider, you may feel uncomfortable. A minor fear of heights can make you uncomfortable in certain areas, but you can manage and usually avoid these heights.

However, extreme phobias can make it difficult to live your life. For example, someone may fear going outside, which is agoraphobia. Someone with an extreme fear of people may never want to be around a crowd. Fear of flying prevents people from traveling.

Cognitive psychology helps people by teaching them ways to adjust to their phobia. From gradual exposure to positive thinking, someone can learn how to overcome the fears or cope with them whenever they're exposed to the source of their fears.

To Get You Back In A Routine

If you've been going through a change in life, have suffered from depression, or have experienced anything else that can throw you off your routine, getting you back into your routine is important. It can keep you distracted and make you less depressed or anxious. However, it can be hard to get back into a routine. This is where cognitive therapy comes in. You can change your thinking to adapt to your new routine, allowing you to ease in much better.

For Those Who Want To Improve Mentally

You don't need to have a brain injury or a mental disorder to benefit from cognitive psychology. Some clients are people who are overall well-minded but want to improve in some facets. For example, students who want to focus on their work and want to avoid distractions may seek a therapist to learn techniques to stay focused and not let the Internet distract them.

Someone a bit forgetful may want to seek a cognitive psychologist's help to improve their memory. You don't need to have a significant disorder to forget some things. A psychologist can teach you tips to recall information, which can benefit you in so many ways.

Someone may not suffer from depression, but be pessimistic. They may have confidence issues, and this can affect how they perform. A cognitive psychologist will teach the person how they can think more positively and not let doubt get in their way.

No matter your age, no matter your state of health, wanting to improve your cognition is a great idea. It can help prepare you for aging and changes in your life.

How Cognitive Psychology Has Changed The World

The field of psychology has evolved quite a bit in the past few decades. Before cognitive psychology took over, other approaches to how the mind worked, such as psychoanalysis. This was useful, but it didn't explain how people think and how these patterns can cause you mental harm. For example, if someone is always thinking negatively, a cognitive psychologist wants to know why the brain thinks that way and how the patterns can be changed.

Some of the techniques that have been born from cognitive psychology include:

Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Cognitive behavior therapy, or CBT, is a form of therapy that can treat depression, anxiety, and a slew of other mental health disorders. It works by identifying negative emotions and thoughts that are self-defeating or enable an episode and then replacing them with more positive and motivational thoughts. For example, if someone believes they are worthless, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy hopes to replace thoughts that tell them they are worthless with more positive thoughts.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Rational emotive behavior therapy, or REBT, is similar to CBT but deals with irrational beliefs and fears. Let's say you have a fear of flying. This may be due to a negative child's experience as a chi hearing about a plane crash or a bad experience on a plane. Despite planes being the safest way to travel, you are scared of them but don't avoid more dangerous cars.

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REBT seeks to eliminate irrational fears by replacing them with truths. 

REBT is not only good for traveling fears but other fears as well. Such as talking to people. If you want a date, you may be scared of talking to someone. The worst that could happen is that they say no, but this doesn't prevent you from being scare. REBT seeks to eliminate these thoughts and boost your confidence.

Seek Help!

If you feel like you need to improve your cognitive abilities, there is no shame in seeking a cognitive psychologist. A cognitive psychologist can help you resolve any problems you have, be it fears, anxiety, depression, or a brain injury. Through intense therapy, you can be able to improve yourself and your overall mental health.

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