Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

"I believe therefore I am"

Thoughts, feelings, reactions! As human beings regardless of stature, education, culture, we are all susceptible to feeling hurt, upset and anxious. It's our way of dealing with these that show "who" we are. In life it's no piece of cake and for some of us however, it's more difficult to cope. With many living in denial of what's actually happening in their life's and society affecting us from facing our problems head on. Discussions on depression, OCD, or any other mental disorder seem to be frowned upon. No one wants to openly point out they have a problem. Going to the doctor with a physical ailment is easy; cut on your leg is covered with a plaster. But when it's mental is harder to diagnose and treat the problem.

The reaction of what we do is precisely what Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy is all about. Helping the client to change how they think (cognitive), how we feel (emotion) and what they do about it (behavior). These changes are aimed at helping the individual feel better. It centers on what's happening now problems and difficulties rather than what's caused such problems in the past. It basically looks for a way to change you way of mind now.

CBT was originally developed through a joining of behavior therapy with cognitive psychology is has three key features; a problem solving, changed-changed focus approach to working with clients; a respect for scientific values and close attention to the cognitive processes through which people monitor and control their behavior. The main understanding behind CBT is that one's thought influence one's emotions and behaviours and that if negative thought are altered, negative emotions and behaviours will be altered as well.

The establishment of CBT originated from behaviorists in the 20th century, Pavlov, Watson, skinner, and Eynsenck were all famous behaviourists of their time. They paved the way for the behavioural treatment of mental disorders. Watson himself carried out the well known "little Albert" experiment. Notably where a conditioned fear of animals was induced in a young boy by frightening him with a loud noise at the moment he would be giving a furry animal to hold. (http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Little%20Albert.htm). The behavior section of the cognitive behavior approach has its origins in behavior psychology which is widely deliberated as being created by J.B. Watson, particularly through the publication in 1918 Psychology from the stand point of a behaviourist.

Although one of the earliest traces of CBT has been link to Ivan Pavlov's work on conditioning (conditioned and unconditioned responses). The study depicted a dog salivating when a bell rang and the conditioning process was that in the presence of food a bell would ring.

Cognitive behavioural aims to help people become aware of when they make negative interpretations and of behavioural patterns which reinforce the distorted thinking. CBT is an umbrella term for many different theories that all share some common elements. The first intentionally therapeutic approach to CBT to be developed was Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) which was created by Ellis in the mid 1950's. This approach was developed in reaction to his aversion of the in-efficient and in-directive nature of psychoanalysis. Later after modification Ellis went on to rename it the Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. The 60's seen the cognitive therapy come to life derived from the research by Aaron Beck, his approach was described as being the best to treatment of depression. Also included under this umbrella was Donald Meichenbaum's cognitive behaviour modification model.

CBT believes that people may not fully be aware of their core beliefs, but allow themselves to be influenced by unrealistic, unhelpful and pessimistic beliefs, it's the way the feel and react to these situations that come to the unfortunate conclusion that things are threatening or negative. CBT is hidden by the belief that cognitive activity is the main contributor to behaviour and emotion. CBT emphasizes the empirical validation of therapy.

The cognitive therapist teaches clients how to identify distorted cognitions through a process of evaluation. The clients learn to differentiate between what they are thinking themselves and reality. They then learn what influence cognition has on their feelings and they are taught to recognize, observe and monitor their own thoughts. The part of the therapy involving behaviours aims to set the client 'homework'. (For e.g a diary of their thoughts). Tasks then will be given to help them challenge their own irrational beliefs. The idea is that the client identifies their own discouraging beliefs and learns to prove them wrong.

As a result, their beliefs begin to change and there for emphasizing one of the main underlying assumptions of the whole theory that if the thoughts of an individual can be somewhat edited then the rest of the system will follow suit, meaning that changes to the cognition then the behaviour will change too.

Another assumption of CBT is that all cognitions are not simply mysterious ephemeral processes; they can be measured, monitored and altered. Asking people how they think and feel is thus a potentially effective way of understanding their behaviour. If cognitions can be measured they can also be altered. This means that the way people think about the world and think about themselves can be changed, which is the goal of CBT when there is maladaptive behaviour and cognitions.

Cognitive behavioural therapy is seen to have great appeal because it focuses on human thought. Human cognitive abilities have been responsible for not only our many accomplishments but also unfortunately for our problems. The cognitive theories that surround CBT lend themselves to be testing and when experimental subjects are manipulated into adopting unpleasant assumptions or thought they become anxious and depressed (Rimm & Litvak, 1969).

The main goal of behavioural cognitive therapy is encourage people to learn a healthier way of handling with distressing thoughts, as well as reducing avoidance or other problematic behaviours like for e.g. substance abuse. Ideally the whole process should lead to an individual being able to cope. Trying to limit anxiety, avoidance and also improving the persons mood and most of all the overall quality of life.

CBT begins with the client and the therapist work together to establish a model of the problem, including its causes and the factors that maintain it. Saying

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