Cognitive Behavioral Therapy- A Type Of Psychotherapy

Introduction:
Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of mental health counselling or psychotherapy that focuses on relationships of thoughts, feelings and behavior.
It is usually a short term and helps patients deal with one specific problem.

Scientifically Proved Therapy:
Cognitive Behavioral therapy is one of the new forms of psychotherapy that has been scientifically proved to be effective. A number of clinical trials for many different disorders have been carried out and have shown positive results.

Theory Behind Cognitive Behavioral Therapy :
In cognitive behavioral therapy the mental health counselor helps the patient get aware of negative thinking so as to view the challenging situations in a different way and respond to them effectively. The therapist and the patient work actively together and this theory is based on a cognitive model that the way we perceive situations influences how we feel emotionally.
When a person is in distress usually the way he thinks may be unrealistic so a psychotherapist helps him think more realistically and initiates problem solving and behavioral changes.

Essential Components of CBT:
CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts causes our feeling and behavior so if we can change the way we feel we can change the situation even though the situation has not really changed.
The basic steps or components of this therapy are briefly describes here:

1. Building trust and rapport with the patient is very important as in any other case and helps in getting close to the patient and understand him more accurately.
2. The basic question to ask a patient is is reporting a distressing situation or dysfunctional behavior is " what is going On in your mind right now?" This helps in identify the negative thinking and an approach to think differently.
3. In the first step the therapist helps the patient identify the problematic belief. This is known as functional analysis. The process may sometimes be difficult initially but ultimately leads to self discovery and insights.

4. The second part of CBT focuses on the actual behaviors that are contributing to the problem. The patient begins to learn new skills and tries to put them in real world situations.
5. CBT is a gradual process that helps in changing the behavior in a slow step wise process.
6. CBT is considered to be a rapid therapy in terms of when the results are obtained. The average number of sessions is only 16 compared to other therapies which might even take years to give a positive result.
7. CBT also involves homework assignments and in short the role of the therapist is to listen, teach and encourage while the patient expresses the concerns, learns and implements that learning.

Examples Of CBT:
1. Suppose a person suffers from a social anxiety. In CBT first he simply imagines himself to be in a anxiety provoking social situation and tries to think differently. Then in the second step he starts conversations with friends and family and then finally he can start getting into socail situations more easily without any anxiety.

2. The patients with Phobias are gradually exposed to the thing they fear and are made to think differently through various counselling sessions until the fear goes away from their mind.

3. A depressed patient may be asked to write down the activities that gives him pleasure and is encouraged to schedule positive activities in daily routine. They are also encouraged to interpret the environment is a less negative way and thus slowly changing the thought pattern helps coping with depressing situations.

Uses OF CBT:
Cognitive behavioral therapy has a number of uses in almost all mental conditions like

• Mood disorders
• Anxiety disorders
• Personality disorders
• Eating disorders
• Sleep disorders
• Sexual disorders
• Depression
• Obsessive compulsive disorder
• Psychotic disorders etc.