Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a popular form of talk therapy, also referred to as psychotherapy in psychiatry. A therapist or psychologist helps you over several sessions. With CBT, you identify and remove negative thinking. It enables you to handle any situation and respond effectively.

CBT can treat mental health illnesses such as depression, PTSD, and eating disorders. Our therapists either apply CBT alone or combine it with other methods. Treatment with cognitive-behavioral therapy is not only for mental illness. But anyone who wants to learn how to cope with stressful events will find it helpful.

What is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on connecting your thoughts, feelings, body sensations, and actions. It shows how they interconnect and how negative concerns and emotions can trap you. CBT breaks down problems into smaller pieces, making it easy to help you deal with overwhelming issues. You’ll learn how to adjust your negative habits so that you can feel better. Unlike some other talking therapies, CBT focuses on your current challenges.

It seeks practical methods for improving your mental health daily. Research and clinical experience have both contributed to the progress of CBT. Scientific evidence shows that CBT is effective at promoting change. This makes CBT unique among other types of psychiatric therapy.

CBT centers on several principles, including:

• Faulty or ineffective thinking contributes to psychological issues.
• Psychological disorders result from ingrained habits of unproductive actions. You learn coping strategies, alleviating symptoms, and how to manage daily routine changes.

In CBT, the goal is to alter the way your mind works. Techniques may include: 

• Identifying thinking errors that are causing problems and reevaluating them based on reality
• Understanding the motivations and behaviors of others
• The ability to solve problems despite adversity
• Building confidence in your skills

Behavior change is a common component of CBT. Tactics could include:

• Role-playing to prepare for challenging interactions
• Confronting anxiety instead of avoiding it
• Practicing body relaxation and calming your mind

What is the Purpose of it?

As early as the 1960s, Aaron Beck discovered his patients, who had depression, held on to harmful thoughts. Using a cognitive approach, he explained emotional experiences—how people think shapes their perception of themselves, others, and their surroundings—further influencing their behavior. If you believe that everything around you is terrible, you are likely to feel lousy as well.

Your ideas, emotions, and behaviors are all interconnected. What and how you think and feel about anything or anyone impacts your actions. For example, when you experience stress at work, your perception might be clouded, affecting your decisions. When you undergo CBT therapy, you learn how to handle such events well wherever you are. It alters the way you think, which affects your behavior.

What Can I Expect During Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?

Before beginning your treatment, our therapist asks you to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire paints your mental health and tracks your progress. In the first session, you answer questions and familiarise yourself with your thoughts. The above process helps to customize your treatment.

Because CBT is a team effort, it’s critical to feel at ease with and connected to your therapist. While it’s time-consuming, the results will delight you, primarily if you work with our well-trained therapist. After the interview questions, you both establish your desired goals while noting any negative thoughts you may have. The information determines the best way to assess and change them. 

Get ready to work on homework and out-of-session assignments, including;

• Reflective activities
• Exercises that improve behavioral skills
• Reading

The most common way of providing CBT is in person, but online sessions can also be it.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Types and Effects

Several aspects of CBT focus on ideas, emotions, and behaviors. Structured psychotherapies and self-help resources are examples. Cognitive-behavioral therapies vary in their methods. But they all address underlying thought patterns that cause mental suffering. The therapeutic approaches are;

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT): uses emotional control and mindfulness to address thoughts and behaviors.

Cognitive therapy: Target distorted thinking and emotional responses and behavioral issues.

Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT): focuses on unreasonable beliefs, challenges them, and helps change them.

Multimodal therapy: seeks to treat psychological problems by addressing seven distinct but related modalities: 

• Cognition
• Behavior
• Interpersonal Factors
• Drug/Biological Considerations
• Affect 
• Sensation
• Imagery 

What Happens Afterwards?

Treatment with CBT involves 30-minute sessions every week, over 12 to 20 weeks. In cognitive-behavioral therapy, you learn to change negative thought patterns. They include emotional reasoning (you dislike me, so it must be true) and black-and-white thinking (I cannot do anything). Those two factors affect mental health, work, relationships, and daily life. Having learned these skills, you can use them in a variety of situations throughout your life.

Worth noting is cognitive-behavioral therapy may not cure you or make an unpleasant situation go away. But it may ease your symptoms in the short term. With cognitive behavior, you can cope with your situation and feel more satisfied with yourself and your life.

At Arcara Personalized Psychiatry, we walk with clients facing mental health issues. Our evidence-based treatment methods help you learn to handle difficult thoughts, emotions, and actions. To learn more, contact us today.