You must be aware of the complexities of mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, OCD, etc. If you have that much knowledge and awareness about mental disorders, then you might have come across a term called Cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT.
What is CBT therapy, or cognitive-behavioral therapy?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a type of psychological counseling that involves talking with clients to help them deal with symptoms of mental health conditions and other psychological or emotional problems they are facing.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most common and effective approaches to counseling that yields observable results with its self-help strategies.
Mental health professionals use CBT to treat mental disorders like depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other conditions.
It is mainly focused on modifying the behavior and thought processes of a person to improve their overall emotional and mental well-being.
How does cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) work?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is based on some core principles that aim to change the thought process responsible for our irrational thoughts. In cases of depression, anxiety, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD), our negative thought process makes us prone to symptoms of mental disorders. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) works gradually in steps, making the person aware of their thoughts, feelings, and why they think what they think and believe.
These changes of thought take place in the following ways:
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) helps in identifying the cause of a problem, what is causing the problem, why it is causing the problem, and what can be done about it.
- CBT helps to understand our thoughts so we can learn about ourselves by acknowledging them.
- CBT is like a motivational spirit that pushes us to face our fears and fight them back!
- CBT involves learning problem-solving skills to pinpoint and solve what is causing the difficulty for us.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques
Assessment of the problem
Mental health professionals assess the problem causing the stress with the help of a questionnaire, which contains questions to evaluate the condition of a person.
Educating a person
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) takes an education-focused approach when dealing with people. It focuses on teaching the person having a problem about their condition through books, personal notes, and journals. Creating self-awareness about the condition improves a better understanding of the problems.
Therapists may provide the best cognitive-behavioral therapy books for their clients. Various publications provide the best cognitive-behavioral therapy books.For people who want to practice self-help at home and learn to reduce their stress.
Setting goal
Therapists in CBT ask their clients to note down the goals and ways they think CBT can help them achieve them.Goal setting is an important in managing depression/anxiety symptoms.
Strategies to practice in CBT
CBT encourages engaging in practices such as self-talk and relaxation to help with stressful symptoms.The relaxation is gradually learned when stressful symptoms are reduced and replaced with the thought of relaxation.
Self-care at home
A lot of cognitive-behavioral therapy books for self-care teaches to read and practice as homework, so a person can track their progress.
Why is Cognitive-behavioral therapy(CBT) useful and important?
Combined approach
CBT works by interacting with other therapists’ approaches. It is an element of other therapies, and hence it works in depth to solve a deep-rooted problem.
Alternate medicine
When traditional medicines don’t seem to work in dealing with symptoms, CBT has shown significant results in improving the symptoms and stress.
Helps in relapse
CBT helps in managing relapses caused by medicine and helps in a person’s recovery process. It reduces the reliance on medications and helps maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Manage mood disorders
CBT helps in dealing with disorders like depression and anxiety. Bipolar disorder, PTSD, etc.CBT helps in targeting and changing negative thought patterns in mental health disorders, which makes it difficult to recover from them.
Dealing with general stressful situations
Not only does CBT target mental disorders, but it also helps in solving issues related to general stress that disrupt emotional well-being. This can include bad habits, procrastination, general anxiety, relationship issues, etc.
CBT is trauma-focused!
CBT is a trauma-focused approach!CBT plays a significant role. Cases of people with deep trauma caused by painful and traumatic experiences like abuse and violence. In cases of PTSD and OCD, professionals identify the source of stress and trauma by evaluating the fault that is causing the difficulty.
What are the limitations of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy has its own set of issues and limitations.
Dealing with brain disease
We know CBT helps to deal with negative thought patterns and aims to change them; however, in cases of brain injury and brain-related disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, where the brain’s ability to reason is impaired, CBT may not show any effective results.
Chances of disappointment
Unlike traditional therapies, where therapists guide the client through the whole healing process, CBT places more emphasis on guiding than leading. Hence, CBT requires 100% participation. If a person cannot work toward the set goal, they may get disappointed.
Time taking
The human mind is fragile and unique; it doesn’t work on complete, accurate principles.All therapeutic techniques require time and patience because they deal with a person’s consciousness, which can have a deep impact on their overall behavior. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is also a time-consuming process, which may take months to years of sessions to have completely effective results. Results. If a person is enough, or patient enough, they might lose all their trust in the therapy altogether.