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Upcoming
Workshops
Topics include:
- Living with
Trichotillomania
- Coping with
Social Anxiety
Remember to
bookmark our site and check for workshop announcements
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What is
Cognitive Behavior Therapy?
by Suzanne B.
Feinstein, Ph.D. and Ori Shinar, Psy.D.
 Cognitive
Behavior Therapy (CBT) is an action-oriented, problem-solving therapy
which has been found to be highly effective in treating anxiety and
depressive disorders. This therapy is strategically devised to treat
different problems in different individuals. CBT utilizes the "here
and now" approach, emphasizing current life factors that maintain the
problem, though past experiences that are directly relevant to the
client's distress is welcomed into the discussion.
Cognitive-behavior therapists help clients to understand that although
biological and environmental conditions can contribute to problems,
the clients create, to a large degree, their own psychological
disturbances and have the ability to significantly change these
disturbances. Therapists play an integral part in correcting the
disturbed evaluations, emotions, and behaviors of their clients by
guiding them toward rational goals and purposes and assisting them in
generating alternative courses of action.
Cognitive therapy helps clients to understand that distorted patterns
of cognition have problematic emotional and behavioral consequences.
Teaching clients to self-monitor their thoughts and feelings on a
day-to-day basis through the utilization of a daily diary helps them
unravel core beliefs and their relation to ongoing feelings and
behaviors. In cognitive treatment, clients learn to detect and dispute
their irrational beliefs by discriminating them from their rational
alternatives. Over time, this enhanced awareness will lead them to
actively challenge their dysfunctional thoughts by employing
cognitive, emotive, and behavioral methods of change.
Behavior therapy assists clients in detecting behavioral patterns that
are functionally related to the presenting complaint. A behavioral
treatment plan is carefully tailored to meet each individual's needs
and is dependent on the specific problem at hand. Often, techniques
such as relaxation training and systematic desensitization are
utilized to help clients gradually increase their comfort level in the
presence of phobias or feared situations. In addition, modeling,
behavior rehearsal, and planned exposures are some of the many tools
that assist individuals in managing their anxieties more effectively.
The CBT therapist encourages the individual to be self-reliant and
incorporates relapse prevention into treatment in order to maintain
progress after discharge. The combination of a comprehensive CBT
treatment, an empathic and supportive therapist, and motivated client
is optimal in achieving notable improvements. |
