What Is Cognitive Therapy And Will It Work For Me?
One of the most common forms of psychotherapy, cognitive therapy, relates to how we think, feel and behave, and how each of these different aspects is interconnected and makes us who we are in the present. It’s about how we can move forward and meet the dreams and goals that we set for ourselves. If we can change the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings, we have to be more positive about ourselves and our future.
Understanding cognitive therapy
Cognitive therapy was created way back in the 1960s by a man named Aaron T. Beck. This type of therapy shows that the individual is responsible for their presence because of how they think or feel about different situations that occur in their life. That’s not to say that it’s a simple process to change those thought processes or belief systems, but it is an internal process. By changing them and working with a therapist to do so, the individual can impact their life.
It requires a therapist to help develop proper skills and behaviors to improve the lives and the situations that the individual struggles with. The therapist can help you learn how to relate to people more positively, change your behaviors, get rid of negative thoughts and beliefs that tear you down, and a lot more. However, all of this requires the individual, you, to be willing and able to make changes throughout the way that you live your life to achieve success as you move forward.
Using cognitive therapy
If you’re looking to improve your own life with this type of therapy, it requires several different steps that are considered part of the restructuring process. Each of these steps is crucial to achieving the best possible results from this type of therapy and overcoming the underlying issues causing the mental health problem.
- Identifying negative or irrational automatic thoughts that are based on a belief about the self or future.
- Identifying cognitive distortions related to automatic thoughts.
- Disputing the rationality of the automatic thoughts using the Socratic method.
- Creating rational rebuttals to the automatic thoughts.
When we talk about automatic thoughts, we’re talking about things that show up in mind without you having to even think about them. It’s an automatic association that comes about. For those with negative thoughts, it may be an immediate feeling of failure after getting an answer wrong, for example. There are six different ways that these thoughts are characterized.
- Self-evaluation
- Evaluation of others
- Evaluation of someone who you are interacting with
- Coping strategies and behavior plans
- Avoidance thoughts
- All other thoughts
Treating your automatic thoughts with cognitive therapy
There are many different ways that these types of thoughts can be viewed or changed, and each one is going to be different for different people. Perhaps a few of these will work better for you than others, or they may work for someone you know but not work for you. It’s going to be a process of finding the best way to help yourself, but it can be done if you’re willing and able to make the changes and find someone who is willing and able to help you.
Monitoring activities and scheduling them, performing experiments related to behavior, catching negative thoughts, and consciously changing them, investigating the thought to determine if it is rational or irrational, exposure and ‘as if’ training can help understand negative traits and beliefs and change them. Guided discovery, Socratic questioning, problem-solving, cost-benefit analysis, and the downward arrow technique are other types of training or thought processes that you can go through with your mental health professional to find out more about how to change your thought processes.
What is the Socratic method
Because it’s one of the most common teaching methods with cognitive therapy, we’ll take a closer look at the Socratic method, which seeks to challenge any thought or opinion to find a more reasonable explanation. It does this through a few simple steps.
- Is there another explanation or way to look at the situation?
- What does it mean if I think or believe this way? What would happen if I thought a different way?
- What would I tell someone else if they were dealing with this situation?
By going through these simple questions, you can find out more about whether your thought process makes sense or is irrational.
Looking for help
Once you understand more about cognitive therapy, the next step is finding a therapist or cognitive psychologist who can help you. You want someone who will work with you through the situations you’re experiencing and help you understand the situations you find yourself in. It will take time and effort to overcome any mental health situation, but it is most definitely possible. My Therapist is one way that you can help yourself to do just that.
MyTherapist is an online service that allows you to find various information about different mental health conditions and situations. It also helps you connect with therapists and other mental health professionals that are located around the country. That way, you can find someone that knows how to help you and that you can feel most comfortable with. When you do, you’ll be able to start pushing yourself towards the life that you want and the life that you deserve; what could be better than that? It’s just going to take a little bit of time, and this online service can help change your life.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What does cognitive therapy do?
Cognitive therapy is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Based on the idea that people’s biased thoughts and misinterpretations lead to unhealthy behaviors and self-esteem, cognitive behavior therapy aims to help people re-wire their brains. It’s a bit like being in a house of mirrors: the patient is shown how their reflections are distorted, then the therapist helps them adjust their perception to a more realistic one. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps patients re-wire their brains to a healthier set of beliefs and thought patterns.
Is cognitive therapy the same as CBT?
It is part of it. Cognitive behavior therapy is a type of therapy focused on challenging harmful thought patterns and developing healthy new responses. As a group of therapies, cognitive behavioral therapy includes exposure therapy, stress inoculation, and other therapy types geared toward patients with anxiety or stress disorders. Cognitive therapy, however, is a specific form of therapist–patient dialogue in which the patient evaluates their own perceptions and deliberately adopts new ways of thinking. Therapy sessions draw upon a cognitive-behavioral model, focusing on dialectical behavior therapy and other techniques designed to get patients “unstuck.”
Is Cognitive Therapy Effective?
Yes. Cognitive-behavioral therapy goes beyond treating the symptoms to get the root cause of mental illness. Many patients with depression, anxiety, and other psychological problems develop incredibly harmful thought patterns, such as “everyone hates me,” “I can’t do anything right,” and “people are out to get me.” These preconceptions lead to negative behavior patterns, such as avoiding others, or lashing out. Much research has shown that cognitive behavior therapy and other behavioral therapies can resolve these forms of mental illness.
Cognitive behavior therapy is highly effective as a complement to medication or even the primary form of treatment for patients with medication-resistant depression. That’s because harmful thought patterns perpetuate themselves, causing relapse if not properly resolved. Behavior therapy gets the root cause rather than simply modifying brain chemistry. Thus, cognitive behavioral therapy is an excellent way to help patients break free of this deadly cycle.
What are examples of cognitive therapy?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on challenging and re-structuring harmful thought patterns. In a typical cognitive behavior therapy session, the therapist will ask the patient to describe their fears, reflect on a past event, or imagine themselves in a hypothetical scenario. From there, the therapist will help them discover their current pattern and consider a new option. This is called rational emotive behavior therapy REBT.
For example, a patient may say that they struggle to stay motivated at work because they’re constantly worried they will do a bad job and be fired. In cognitive therapy sessions, the therapist will help them identify this internal bias and develop a new, healthy thought structure, e.g., “I am good at my job, and I will do my best every day.” This rewiring is the core of these types of therapy.
What do cognitive therapists focus on?
Cognitive-behavioral therapists look for ways to help patients re-structure their thoughts through dialogue. Rather than listening to someone’s remarks then offering their interpretation, the conversation is a key part of cognitive-behavioral therapies, meant to challenge the patients’ biases and help them abandon unhelpful thinking styles. For example, in rational emotive behavior therapy, the therapist will help the patient replace self-defeating ideas with empowering ones.
This cognitive model of thoughts as the basis of behavior allows patients to have greater agency as they go through treatment, rather than feeling dependent on medication. (Although for some patients, pharmaceuticals may be a good complement to behavior therapy.) Through cognitive behavioral therapy, the patient ends up feeling empowered to live a healthier life.
Who needs cognitive therapy?
Cognitive behavior therapy helps patients who are experiencing general depression, panic attacks, or social anxiety. It is also used in couples counseling to help people address their patterns in the relationship. People with clinical levels of depression or other psychological problems may not respond to medication, so cognitive behavior therapy CBT is a good option. Those who have mood disorders, stress- or trauma-related disorders and even OCD can also benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy.
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