Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy? (CBT).

CBT is a treatment approach that is based on the concept that the way we think effects how we respond.

People can interpret the same life event very differently, leading to many & varied emotional & behavioural consequences. Some of these consequences can be helpful, & some not so helpful in our day to day lives.

The central insight of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as originally formulated over four decades ago is that thoughts mediate between stimuli, such as external events and emotions.

In other words, it is not the stimulus itself which somehow elicits an emotional response directly, but our evaluation of or thought about that stimulus.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a way of talking about:

How you think about yourself, the world and other people.
How what you do affects your thoughts and feelings.

It is not actually the event or situation that directly impacts on how we feel & behave, but rather our thoughts about the event.

The theories of cognitive therapy suggest that negative or unhelpful thoughts & beliefs are a significant factor in the development or exacerbation of depression, anxiety, anger, low self esteem, self defeating behaviours & difficulty with coping. Therefore, being able to identify and challenge these beliefs can assist a person to reduce distress and enhance their ability to cope in everyday life situations.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has become more commonly adapted for self-help manuals. It is a psychotherapy based on modifying everyday thoughts and behaviors.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is based on the idea that; how we think (cognition), how we feel (emotion), and how we act (behavior) all interact together.

Specifically, our thoughts influence our feelings and our behavior. Therefore, negative and unrealistic thoughts can cause us to stress and result in problems.

Think about the following example to illustrate this process. After making a mistake, You think to yourself "I'm useless and can't do anything right."

This impacts negatively on your mood, making you feel depressed; the problem may be worsened if you react by avoiding similar activities therefore a successful experience becomes more unlikely, which reinforces the original thought of being "useless."

In therapy, the latter example could be identified as a self-fulfilling prophecy or "problem cycle," and the efforts of the therapist and client would be directed at working together to change this.

This is done by addressing the way you think in response to similar situations and by developing more flexible ways to think and respond, including reducing the avoidance of activities.

If, as a result, you may escape the negative thought pattern, the feelings of depression may be relieved. You may then become more active, succeed more often, and further reduce the feelings of depression.

Cognitive Therapy (CT) is said to have been developed by psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck in the 1960s. Who became disillusioned with long-term psychodynamic approaches based on gaining insight into unconscious emotions and drives?

Beck, came to the conclusion that the way in which his clients perceived and interpreted and attributed meaning — a process known scientifically as cognition — in their daily lives was a key to therapy.

and

Albert Ellis (September 27, 1913 – July 24, 2007) who was an American cognitive-behavioral therapist who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Ellis was considered by many to be the grandfather of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Cognitive therapy seeks to identify and change our negative ways of thinking, and therefore influence our positive emotions and behavior.

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