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| Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with illustrative examples |
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a treatment that combines behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy by identifying and treating bad and destructive thoughts that lead to undesirable behaviors.
Cognitive behavioral therapy changes negative thoughts that occur automatically, which may lead to serious psychological problems and diseases, including anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Types of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy has several types used to treat thoughts and behaviors, among these
1. Cognitive Therapy
Cognitive therapy focuses on identifying bad thoughts, distinguishing their type (simple - medium - complex), and deducing the correct method to change these thoughts to more positive thoughts
Example:
"Individual is untrusted in himself "
This is a bad thought that may lead to psychological illnesses such as isolation and psychological depression Therefore, it can be treated by increasing the individual’s self-confidence by applying a set of exercises, including:
1. Repeat phrases:
"I am trusted in myself, I can do that"
2. Group discussion:
2. Multimedia Therapy
Multimodal therapy depends on more than a treatment model, all models must be applied because they are interconnected the models: (Perception - personal factors - sensation - images - influence - behavior - medications)
Example:
To treat an individual, all seven models have to be applied
- First, the individual’s perception of diseases must be changed, the individual must perceive that he is not sick because the disease is diagnosed by clinical diagnosis of the doctor, not by psychological symptoms
- Second, the individual's personal factors must be understood in terms of how growing up, lives the environment, and whether he is an isolated individual or not
- Third, important concepts about sensation must be clarified to the individual so that he can get rid of bad thoughts and perceptions.
- For example, if the individual feels pain in the heart, this does not mean that he has a heart disease because it may be heartburn or contracted nerves or muscles.
- Fourth, changing the images that have been installed in the individual’s brain since childhood about diseases and replacing them with more objective and positive images.
- Fifth, exercises and actions must be practiced to reduce the impact of bad thoughts on the individual
- Sixth, the individual's behaviors may be undesirable due to wrong ideas. Behavior improvement exercises should be applied gradually to be more objective
- Seventh, we may need medications to treat the individual if the disease is late
These seven models are interconnected with each other to treat the fear of diseases. so knowing the personal factors may lead to a correct understanding and awareness of the individual, which leads to the ease of programming images in the brain and replacing them with more positive images, and thus to a better feeling, less influence from new negative thoughts, and in the end, normal and positive behaviors.
3. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy specializes in treating dangerous and destructive thoughts that have completely disappointed the individual Therefore, clinical psychological techniques may be used to assist in treatment, including mindfulness and emotional regulation.
4. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
Developed by Albert Ellis, REBT emphasizes the role of irrational beliefs in the development and maintenance of emotional and behavioral problems.
The therapist helps the client identify and dispute these irrational beliefs, replacing them with more rational and adaptive ones.
Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Thoughts and feelings have a great influence on an individual's behaviors, so a traveler may avoid flying or air travel because of the thoughts therefore, cognitive behavioral therapy has great benefits in treating and helping people to live normally and destroying bad thoughts.
Among the most important benefits of emotional behavioral therapy are:
- CBT helps to distinguish bad thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts
- CBT helps in treating the wrong behaviors of individuals resulting from wrong ideas
- The cost of cognitive behavioral therapy is less than medication therapy, in addition to being non-addictive or withdrawn, unlike some psychological medications.
- The treatment 'effect is fast, so improvement is observed within 5 to 20 sessions
- CBT can be used with psychiatric medications to treat very difficult cases
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a treatment that uses modern techniques and methods to diagnose and treat deviant thoughts and behaviors. The most important of these techniques are:
1. Identifying Negative Thoughts
The process of identifying negative thoughts is difficult, especially for individuals who suffer from full control of thoughts, so to identify the negative thoughts, CBT requires repeated sessions, and thus knowing the correct methods for treating the self.
2. Goal-Setting
Setting a goal and achieving is an important step for psychological treatment because negative thoughts multiply when an individual is not busy.
Cognitive behavioral therapy helps the individual set the goal or clarify the difference between short- and long-term goals
A goal's impact on improving the individual’s behaviors CBT also includes details about the goals, including (related goals - specific goals, not open-ended - achievable goals - measurable goals - and time-related goals).
3. Practicing New Skills
Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches the individual new skills to cope with negative thoughts and reduce their effects
Example:
It is difficult for an individual who uses drugs to quit easily, so CBT helps an individual to learn new skills such as sports or any life skill that occupies free time the individual or training on the skill of avoiding drugs, such as the skill of linking drugs to heart disease, and thus the individual may stop because fear of heart disease.