What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
It is one of the most widely used types of psychotherapy today and is a short-term and problem-focused method. Cognitive Therapy, developed by Aaron Beck in the 1960s, tried to explain how thought is effective in mental disorders. In this sense, Beck was the first to develop the theory and methods of cognitive and behavioral interventions in affective disorders.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is based on the theory that it determines the person’s mentality, perception, interpretation of events, emotional reactions and behaviors. For this reason, the aim of therapy is to reshape the person’s negative and dysfunctional thoughts and replace them with realistic and positive ways of thinking. In this way, the person’s feelings and behaviors are changed.
How Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Applied?
CIS is based on two basic principles:
1) Our cognitions have an impact on our emotions and behaviors.
2) Our behavior influences our thinking and emotions.
Therefore, CBT focuses on changing misperceptions, misinterpretations, and dysfunctional automatic thoughts by dealing with the way individuals perceive, interpret and attribute meanings to events.
Even if the individual is not aware of some of his internal processes, he can reach and realize some of them with the conscious effort that occurs with the support of therapy.
For example, when the person is in the exam, he/she starts to feel anxiety and sadness by having the thought of “I shouldn’t make a mistake, if I make a mistake, the result will be very bad”.
At this point, CBT tries to guide the individual to a healthy mindset by working on the automatic thoughts, intermediate beliefs, rules, basic beliefs that the person has, with cognitive restructuring.
-Automatic Thoughts: These are the thoughts that come to our minds spontaneously, often not noticed, usually only the accompanying emotion is noticed. For example, while the thought of “I must not make a mistake in the exam” passes through our minds very quickly, we feel anxiety and sadness more clearly and heavily. Therefore, automatic thoughts often lead to painful emotional reactions and dysfunctional behaviors. The most important clue about automatic thought is that it occurs when we are feeling intense emotions.
-Intermediate Beliefs and Rules: Even if the information obtained through experience and observation is not expressed by the person, because he believes in them, he acts according to these beliefs and rules without being aware of it. For example, if he has had an intermediate belief from his life that “If I fail, people won’t like me,” he will feel too much pressure to succeed. Likewise, if he believes in the rule that “Asking people for help is an expression of weakness,” he will often try to do things alone, without help.
-Basic Beliefs: These are belief systems that are seen in 2 types in the form of positive or negative basic beliefs, formed as a result of past experiences, and generally gathered under 3 main headings as helplessness, worthlessness, and dislike.
For example, by starting with the automatic thought “I will not be able to complete this assignment”, the Person may have the intermediate belief “If I cannot complete my homework, I am not a good student”, and finally reach the basic belief “So I am unsuccessful”.
What Are the Goals of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
The aim of therapy is to correct the mistakes of misinterpreting the information one has, and to help change the assumptions that push the person to dysfunctional emotions and behaviors.
First of all, automatic thoughts, intermediate and basic beliefs are revealed, changed, avoidance patterns of the person are determined and CBT skills that will enable the person to help himself/herself for life are worked on. Thus, by increasing the awareness of the individual, it is ensured that he discovers alternative thinking styles different from the ones he is used to.
How Long Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Take?
Although the sessions usually last 45 minutes and are focused on the client’s current time problems, since the early childhood period, traumas, if any, family contacts, work life and social interactions will be taken into account, an effective progress can be achieved during an average of 10 sessions, although it varies from person to person.
Is it an Effective Method?
People who learn cognitive and behavioral methods can prevent future recurrences of their problems by avoiding negative thoughts in stressful situations, even after the therapy has ended, since they also identify their cognitive errors. In studies on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, it is stated that this method is effective alone in the treatment of many psychiatric diseases, and it is also added to drug therapy in order to increase the quality of life in many psychiatric disorders.
In Which Diseases Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Effective?
- anxiety disorders
- Panic attack
- Depression
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Tic Disorders
- Eating disorders
- Obesity
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar disorder
- Sexual Dysfunctions
- family therapies
- Alcohol-Substance addiction
- Smoking addiction
- Sleeping disorders
- Anger Control Disorder
How is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Applied in OCD?
OCD is a disorder in which obsessions (obsessions) appear as repetitive thoughts that cause anxiety in people, and compulsions (compulsions) appear in the form of rules to be followed in response to their obsession. Types of obsessions: Aggression, contagion, suspicion, sexual, religious issues, while Compulsion types can be given as examples of cleaning, controlling, arranging, repeating compulsions.
According to the cognitive behavioral theory, OCD is a learned behavior as a result of reinforcement of consequences. Cognitive therapy for OCD patients does not target the thoughts themselves, but rather the patients’ beliefs about their obsessive thoughts.
They divided OCD treatment into three parts. These three parts are as follows;
• Psychological education, anxiety management education and cognitive therapy
• Exposure and response prevention
• Relapse prevention and behavioral reward program
Can Depression Be Treated With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
- Behavioral Techniques:
In individuals experiencing severe depression, it is important to use behavioral techniques at the beginning of therapy. Because, although increased activities alone are not sufficient to achieve the result, it is a tool that affects cognitive change in order to break the depressive cycle of decreased activity level, feelings of inadequacy, discouragement, decreased satisfaction and self-esteem. These interventions help the person to correct their negative expectations and to see the contribution of their pessimistic point of view to their inability to continue their life.
- Cognitive Techniques:
In cognitive techniques, the therapist and client work together to reveal and eliminate beliefs that are wrong and inappropriate interpretations of the world that cause problems.
The therapist asks a series of carefully organized questions to enable new learning. The aims of the therapist asking questions are usually:
a- Explain or describe the problem
b- Helping to identify thoughts, images and assumptions
c- Examining the meaning of events for the patient
d- Evaluate the consequences of maladaptive thoughts and behaviors.
How is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Applied in Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety disorders encompass a number of related disorders, called the anxiety spectrum of individuals, that share common themes.
-What is the Purpose of Anxiety?
• Security
• Survival
• Peace and quiet
• Pleasure (avoiding pain)
– What are the Types of Anxiety?
• Generalized anxiety disorder
• Agoraphobia and panic
• Simple phobia • Social Anxiety
• Health Anxiety (Illness of Disease)
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Acute Stress Disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder
-What are the Psychological Symptoms of Anxiety?
• Feeling of dread
• Difficulty focusing
• Sleep problems
- Insomnia
• Decrease in libido
• “Knotting the throat”
• Stomach contraction
• Loss of memory
-What are the Physiological Symptoms in Anxiety?
- trembling, twitching, shaking
- Back pain, headache, muscle aches
- shortness of breath, rapid breathing
- Don’t get tired right away
- don’t startle quickly
- numbness, tingling
- difficulty swallowing
Thoughts, feelings and behaviors are interactive and related. Changing one affects the others. Some individuals are more prone to emotional interventions, some to cognitive interventions, some to behavioral interventions, and some to systemic interventions.
At the beginning of the anxiety treatment, the patient provides relief with drug therapy, and then learns coping skills with CBT.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
It is one of the most widely used types of psychotherapy today and is a short-term and problem-focused method. Cognitive Therapy, developed by Aaron Beck in the 1960s, tried to explain how thought is effective in mental disorders. In this sense, Beck was the first to develop the theory and methods of cognitive and behavioral interventions in affective disorders.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is based on the theory that it determines the person’s mentality, perception, interpretation of events, emotional reactions and behaviors. For this reason, the aim of therapy is to reshape the person’s negative and dysfunctional thoughts and replace them with realistic and positive ways of thinking. In this way, the person’s feelings and behaviors are changed.
How Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Applied?
CIS is based on two basic principles:
1) Our cognitions have an impact on our emotions and behaviors.
2) Our behavior influences our thinking and emotions.
Therefore, CBT focuses on changing misperceptions, misinterpretations, and dysfunctional automatic thoughts by dealing with the way individuals perceive, interpret and attribute meanings to events.
Even if the individual is not aware of some of his internal processes, he can reach and realize some of them with the conscious effort that occurs with the support of therapy.
For example, when the person is in the exam, he/she starts to feel anxiety and sadness by having the thought of “I shouldn’t make a mistake, if I make a mistake, the result will be very bad”.
At this point, CBT tries to guide the individual to a healthy mindset by working on the automatic thoughts, intermediate beliefs, rules, basic beliefs that the person has, with cognitive restructuring.
-Automatic Thoughts: These are the thoughts that come to our minds spontaneously, often not noticed, usually only the accompanying emotion is noticed. For example, while the thought of “I must not make a mistake in the exam” passes through our minds very quickly, we feel anxiety and sadness more clearly and heavily. Therefore, automatic thoughts often lead to painful emotional reactions and dysfunctional behaviors. The most important clue about automatic thought is that it occurs when we are feeling intense emotions.
-Intermediate Beliefs and Rules: Even if the information obtained through experience and observation is not expressed by the person, because he believes in them, he acts according to these beliefs and rules without being aware of it. For example, if he has had an intermediate belief from his life that “If I fail, people won’t like me,” he will feel too much pressure to succeed. Likewise, if he believes in the rule that “Asking people for help is an expression of weakness,” he will often try to do things alone, without help.
-Basic Beliefs: These are belief systems that are seen in 2 types in the form of positive or negative basic beliefs, formed as a result of past experiences, and generally gathered under 3 main headings as helplessness, worthlessness, and dislike.
For example, by starting with the automatic thought “I will not be able to complete this assignment”, the Person may have the intermediate belief “If I cannot complete my homework, I am not a good student”, and finally reach the basic belief “So I am unsuccessful”.
What Are the Goals of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
The aim of therapy is to correct the mistakes of misinterpreting the information one has, and to help change the assumptions that push the person to dysfunctional emotions and behaviors.
First of all, automatic thoughts, intermediate and basic beliefs are revealed, changed, avoidance patterns of the person are determined and CBT skills that will enable the person to help himself/herself for life are worked on. Thus, by increasing the awareness of the individual, it is ensured that he discovers alternative thinking styles different from the ones he is used to.
How Long Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Take?
Although the sessions usually last 45 minutes and are focused on the client’s current time problems, since the early childhood period, traumas, if any, family contacts, work life and social interactions will be taken into account, an effective progress can be achieved during an average of 10 sessions, although it varies from person to person.
Is it an Effective Method?
People who learn cognitive and behavioral methods can prevent future recurrences of their problems by avoiding negative thoughts in stressful situations, even after the therapy has ended, since they also identify their cognitive errors. In studies on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, it is stated that this method is effective alone in the treatment of many psychiatric diseases, and it is also added to drug therapy in order to increase the quality of life in many psychiatric disorders.
In Which Diseases Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Effective?
- anxiety disorders
- Panic attack
- Depression
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Tic Disorders
- Eating disorders
- Obesity
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar disorder
- Sexual Dysfunctions
- family therapies
- Alcohol-Substance addiction
- Smoking addiction
- Sleeping disorders
- Anger Control Disorder
How is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Applied in OCD?
OCD is a disorder in which obsessions (obsessions) appear as repetitive thoughts that cause anxiety in people, and compulsions (compulsions) appear in the form of rules to be followed in response to their obsession. Types of obsessions: Aggression, contagion, suspicion, sexual, religious issues, while Compulsion types can be given as examples of cleaning, controlling, arranging, repeating compulsions.
According to the cognitive behavioral theory, OCD is a learned behavior as a result of reinforcement of consequences. Cognitive therapy for OCD patients does not target the thoughts themselves, but rather the patients’ beliefs about their obsessive thoughts.
They divided OCD treatment into three parts. These three parts are as follows;
• Psychological education, anxiety management education and cognitive therapy
• Exposure and response prevention
• Relapse prevention and behavioral reward program
Can Depression Be Treated With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
- Behavioral Techniques:
In individuals experiencing severe depression, it is important to use behavioral techniques at the beginning of therapy. Because, although increased activities alone are not sufficient to achieve the result, it is a tool that affects cognitive change in order to break the depressive cycle of decreased activity level, feelings of inadequacy, discouragement, decreased satisfaction and self-esteem. These interventions help the person to correct their negative expectations and to see the contribution of their pessimistic point of view to their inability to continue their life.
- Cognitive Techniques:
In cognitive techniques, the therapist and client work together to reveal and eliminate beliefs that are wrong and inappropriate interpretations of the world that cause problems.
The therapist asks a series of carefully organized questions to enable new learning. The aims of the therapist asking questions are usually:
a- Explain or describe the problem
b- Helping to identify thoughts, images and assumptions
c- Examining the meaning of events for the patient
d- Evaluate the consequences of maladaptive thoughts and behaviors.
How is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Applied in Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety disorders encompass a number of related disorders, called the anxiety spectrum of individuals, that share common themes.
-What is the Purpose of Anxiety?
• Security
• Survival
• Peace and quiet
• Pleasure (avoiding pain)
– What are the Types of Anxiety?
• Generalized anxiety disorder
• Agoraphobia and panic
• Simple phobia • Social Anxiety
• Health Anxiety (Illness of Disease)
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Acute Stress Disorder
• Obsessive compulsive disorder
-What are the Psychological Symptoms of Anxiety?
• Feeling of dread
• Difficulty focusing
• Sleep problems
- Insomnia
• Decrease in libido
• “Knotting the throat”
• Stomach contraction
• Loss of memory
-What are the Physiological Symptoms in Anxiety?
- trembling, twitching, shaking
- Back pain, headache, muscle aches
- shortness of breath, rapid breathing
- Don’t get tired right away
- don’t startle quickly
- numbness, tingling
- difficulty swallowing
Thoughts, feelings and behaviors are interactive and related. Changing one affects the others. Some individuals are more prone to emotional interventions, some to cognitive interventions, some to behavioral interventions, and some to systemic interventions.
At the beginning of the anxiety treatment, the patient provides relief with drug therapy, and then learns the skills to cope with the disease with CBT. CBT is much more effective than drug treatments, especially in preventing the recurrence of the disease. Recognizing ideas about the benefits and harms of CBT anxiety helps to distinguish between functional and dysfunctional anxieties. It teaches how to cope with the movements of avoiding thoughts and behaviors at the points of concern.
- First, the focus is on providing mild relief from the person’s symptoms of discomfort.
- Second, the patient is taught how to recognize his distorted automatic thoughts.
- Third, it is intended to provide training on how to respond to their distorted thinking through logic, reasoning, and experimental testing.
- Fourth, the patient identifies and modifies the unhelpful thoughts that underlie his core concerns.
n. CBT is much more effective than drug treatments, especially in preventing the recurrence of the disease. Recognizing ideas about the benefits and harms of CBT anxiety helps to distinguish between functional and dysfunctional anxieties. It teaches how to cope with the movements of avoiding thoughts and behaviors at the points of concern.
- First, the focus is on providing mild relief from the person’s symptoms of discomfort.
- Second, the patient is taught how to recognize his distorted automatic thoughts.
- Third, it is intended to provide training on how to respond to their distorted thinking through logic, reasoning, and experimental testing.
- Fourth, the patient identifies and modifies the unhelpful thoughts that underlie his core concerns.
