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What is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that treats problems and boosts happiness by modifying dysfunctional emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. Unlike traditional Freudian psychoanalysis, which probes childhood wounds to get at the root causes of conflict, CBT focuses on solutions, encouraging patients to challenge distorted cognitions and change destructive patterns of behavior.

Understanding CBT

CBT is a useful tool to address emotional challenges. For example, it may help you:

  • Manage symptoms of mental illness
  • Prevent a relapse of mental illness symptoms
  • Treat a mental illness when medications aren’t a good option
  • Learn techniques for coping with stressful life situations
  • Identify ways to manage emotions
  • Resolve relationship conflicts and learn better ways to communicate
  • Cope with grief or loss
  • Overcome emotional trauma related to abuse or violence
  • Cope with a medical illness
  • Manage chronic physical symptoms

Cognitive behavioral therapy may be done one-on-one, or in groups with family members or with people who have similar issues. It often includes:

  • Learning about your mental health condition
  • Learning and practicing techniques such as relaxation, coping, resilience, stress management and assertiveness

The purpose of cognitive behavioral therapy is to change thinking and behaviors that prevent positive outcomes.

CBT can help people solve various medical, social, work, and emotional problems. While other forms of psychotherapy involve delving into the past to provide insight into feelings, CBT focuses on “the here and now” thoughts and beliefs.

Specific skills that involve recognizing distorted thinking, modifying beliefs, relating to others in different ways are practiced, and eventually the individual can learn to behave in the desired way.

CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change patterns. These strategies might include:

  • Facing one’s fears instead of avoiding them.
  • Using role playing to prepare for potentially problematic interactions with others.
  • Learning to calm one’s mind and relax one’s body.
  • Learning to recognize one’s distortions in thinking that are creating problems, and then to reevaluate them in light of reality.
  • Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others.
  • Using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations.
  • Learning to develop a greater sense of confidence is one’s own abilities

Mental health disorders that may improve with CBT include:

  • Sleep disorders
  • Sexual disorders
  • Depression
  • Bipolar disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Phobias
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Eating disorders
  • Substance use disorders
  • Schizophrenia
  • PTSD

CBT is generally considered short-term therapy — about 10 to 20 sessions. You and your therapist can discuss how many sessions may be right for you. Factors to consider include:

  • Type of disorder or situation
  • Severity of your symptoms
  • How long you’ve had your symptoms or have been dealing with your situation
  • How quickly you make progress
  • How much stress you’re experiencing
  • How much support you receive from family members and other people

Why Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on how your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect your feelings and behavior. CBT aims to teach you effective coping strategies for dealing with different problems throughout life. CBT can help you make sense of overwhelming problems by breaking them down into smaller parts.

One of the key tenets of CBT is that distorted thinking leads to distress and problematic behaviors, whereas thinking realistically with less negativity allows individuals to respond to challenging life circumstances in an effective way.

Research shows this technique is an effective therapy for not only depression and panic disorder, but many illnesses and dysfunctional behaviors.

Additionally, this therapy involves clear identification of the problem, establishing attainable goals, emphatic communication, frequent feedback, reality checks, homework assignments, and teaching individuals to use learned tools to promote positive behavioral change and growth. From Source.

Call us at 469-714-0006 or email us at info@exulthealthcare.com

What’s the Difference Between CBT and DBT?

Advances in medicine and healthcare, even in the last 50 years, are far too numerous to name. People live longer, healthier lives than at any time in modern history. Treatment for mental health disorders, as well as substance abuse and addiction, have also benefitted from these advances.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy are evidence-based approaches for treating addiction and mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression or borderline personality disorder.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates 37 percent of people battling alcoholism and 53 percent of individuals coping with drug addiction suffer from at least one serious mental illness.

CBT and DBT have shown to be effective in the treatment of both addiction and mental health issues. So, what’s the difference and how do they work?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is among the most widely practiced types of therapy used by psychologists and psychiatrists. Patients that undergo this therapy learn the relationship between their thoughts, feelings and behaviors and how each component influences the other.

  • If a person believes that no one loves them (thoughts), it can lead to depression and loneliness (feelings), which might cause them to avoid interaction with others or refuse to develop deep relationships (behavior).

Over time and a limited number of one-on-one sessions, CBT provides individuals with the ability to recognize, manage and adjust thoughts that lead to painful or destructive outcomes. Learning to live and think in a completely new way is empowering and effective.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a branch of CBT. In fact, the creator of cognitive behavioral therapy originally developed DBT to augment its effectiveness with borderline personality disorder – patterns of thoughts and feelings that drastically affects a person’s ability to function in everyday life. Today, it’s used treat a broader spectrum of mental health issues.

With DBT, the emphasis is on social and emotional aspects of day-to-day living. In addition to one-on-one counseling, there’s generally a group therapy session held on a weekly basis. Group sessions are especially important because they’re a guided, safe environment for individuals to develop skills in these four areas:

  • Interpersonal effectiveness

  • Emotion regulation

  • Mindfulness

  • Distress tolerance and reality acceptance skills

Not everyone experiences emotions in the same way. For some people, emotions escalate faster than what might seem normal to others. It’s not difficult to imagine how painful and difficult it is for a person to constantly experience such intense feeling.

DBT provides a skill set for patients to accept who they are, manage their emotions and be aware of their behavior and adjusting it when appropriate.

Mental Health and Addiction can be Intertwined

Mental health, substance abuse and addiction very often go hand in hand. A longtime battle with addiction changes a person’s brain chemistry and can lead to depression and anxiety.

On the flipside, the painful symptoms of a psychiatric disorder can cause a person to self-medicate in an effort to regulate or escape their emotions.

It’s not always clear which came first for a person, but addressing both issues in treatment is vital for a successful recovery. Since no two people are alike, CBT and DBT are adjusted to meet the individual needs each patient.

Deciding which is most effective is determined through discussions with a therapist.

It’s important to remember that addiction and mental health issues are treatable and manageable. While there’s often shame attached to these conditions, society is coming to understand that any related stigma is misplaced.

CBT and DBT are advances in treatment and powerful tools to jumpstart the healing process.