Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

Let’s have a look at the details of CBT………..

Introduction

According to my understanding the slogan of CBT is:

“what we think and do affects the way we feel.”

Cognitive Behavior therapy is an umbrella term because all therapies come under the stems of CBT. Now the question is what actually CBT is? What is the base of CBT to work upon? How dose it works?

therapy representation

SO, CBT is the form of talk therapy which can be used to treat people with wide range of mental health issues like depression, anxiety, Phobias, addiction and PTSD etc. CBT helps you become aware of inaccurate or negative thinking so you can view challenging situations more clearly and respond to them in a more effective way. Thousands of research trials have demonstrated that CBT is an effective treatment for conditions from anxiety and depression to pain and insomnia. It is helpful across the lifespan — children, adolescents, adults, and older adults can all benefit.

Basics of CBT:

There are many different psychological therapies and each has it’s own theory and assumptions that how people work, react and behave. In CBT there are various key concepts that differs it from others. Following are some definitions that makes it unique:

According to American Psychiatric Association

“Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps people identify and change thinking and behavior patterns that are harmful or ineffective, replacing them with more accurate thoughts and functional behaviors, it can help a person focus on current problems and how to solve them. It often involves practicing new skills in the “real world”.”

Meaning of CBT

Usually, CBT is misunderstood by people according to them fixes the negative thought process or only work with surface issues. As we live our lives and interpret the world around us. Actually, we form belief and understandings. These meanings affect how we perceive it. In CBT therapist to help their clients to understand and examine their beliefs: to help them to make sense of meanings. CBT is about three things:

o Thoughts

o Behaviors

o Feelings

The clients learn to discriminate between their own thoughts and reality. They learn the influence that cognition has on their feelings, and they are taught to recognize observe and monitor their own thoughts.

How does CBT model works?

The cognitive model gives us insight that it’s not event that bother us. It’s the way we interpret the event i.e. the way we give meaning to it that creates problem.

Shakespeare said:

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

CBT models tells us the basic components that involves in the interpretation of any event that are following:

1. Event

2. Interpretation (Appraisal)

3. Emotions and body sensations

4. Behavior

These all components are interconnected with each other.