CBT Essay

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

The power of using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in treating mental health problems is unquestionable as it instructs a client, who is often suspicious of the positive effects of CBT, of the detrimental effects of his or her own self-defeating thought patterns and maladaptive behavior. Aaron Beck, first used this type of process to treat learned helplessness and depression. This paper discusses what CBT is, including some basic CBT procedures leading up to the important reasons behind the positive effects of the treatment on individuals with psychological issues, discussing first the cognitive side and then the behavioral side of the therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a technique which combines the processes of cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy into one treatment. Cognitive therapy teaches the client how thinking patterns affect their emotional state and their behavior. Cognitive therapy encourages the client to change irrational and negative thinking patterns in order to alleviate the emotional symptoms that these thoughts cause. Behavioral therapy teaches the client how to change one's learned reactions, which cause avoidance, escape and anxiety of specific situations.

It is a common assumption that our thoughts, not external stimuli, directly cause our emotions and behaviors and the cognitive part of CBT concentrates on the client’s thoughts. There is a multitude of different ways that one can interpret any given stimulus. Some interpretations are inevitably more rational and or more positive than others. Through exercises in thought analysis, the client identifies negative and irrational thoughts and begins to replace them with more rational and more positive thoughts. Automatic thoughts are often the most powerful in affecting our emotions and behaviors as they are the cognitive reactions to feared situations. Automatic thoughts breed assumptions and effect core beliefs. CBT targets negative and irrational beliefs and thoughts in the client’s mind.

CBT is founded on Socrates’ statement that rational thought is based on fact, not assumption. It is the irrational negative assumptions, which are rarely factual, that have such devastating effects on clients because they are very upsetting to the psychological well being of the person. Clients usually do not understand the negative effects of their own thoughts. CBT therapists work with clients to show them what affects their thought patterns have on their psychological states and behavior.

Clients entering CBT are often very skeptical of the treatment. The clients often believe that they cannot change the way that they think because it is such a fundamental part of who they are. By analyzing irrational and negative thoughts the client learns the significance of these thoughts and their impact on behavior. The client learns to look for facts which can be supported by evidence gained from being more objective. By introducing the patient to objective and factual analysis CBT helps the client reduce negative and irrational thinking.

The behavioral side of the therapy identifies the major behavioral problems of the client which manifest themselves mainly as avoidance and escape from certain situations in life, and works to change this maladaptive behavior. The therapist teaches the client the vital information of the grave effects of his or her negative behavior patterns. The client may avoid some situations because of an irrational fear or phobia tied to a particular situation. By avoiding or escaping these kinds of situations, the client breeds more fear of them as this fear builds inside the mind of the client with every avoiding or escaping action. The process of behavioral therapy gradually instructs the client to confront those situations which would normally be avoided. By systematically experiencing previously avoided or escaped situations, the client begins to get accustomed to them and begins to realize that his or her previous fears about these given situations were irrational. The client therefore begins to decrease the amount of automatic avoidance and escape from situations and can stop the vicious cycle with a more realistic approach to life.

Cognitive behavioral therapy has a tremendous effect on clients with psychological problems. The effects of this treatment have been proven to be extremely powerful in treating many psychological problems by approaching irrational and or negative automatic thoughts and changing behavioral reactions to fearful and avoidance causing situations. Specific processes of CBT include analyzing one's automatic thoughts and replacing them with more rational and positive alternative thoughts that are based more on fact and gradually exposing and accustoming the client to feared situations. CBT’s positive effects come from its attack and defeat of thoughts and behavior that can cause negative emotions. CBT is powerful because it teaches the client about the detrimental significance of the maladaptive thinking processes and maladaptive behavior that has been harbored in the patient and instructs the client to base thinking more on facts than on assumptions. This, in turn, has a most powerful influence on affecting the client’s behavior in a healthy and positive direction.

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