Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – A Beneficial Strategy For Self-Help
Summary: Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) provides you with tools and coping methods to help solve your problems.
Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a psychological treatment that helps resolve emotional and mental health issues. Some of these include depression, anxiety, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobias, borderline personality disorder (BPD), etc. Using online therapists UK will be a great and accessible way to aid with psychological issues.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is somewhat different from other types of psychological therapies. While most therapists focus on the cause of mental illnesses, CBT does not consider that. Its methods involve changing the mindset and approaches of their patients’ daily lives in ways to help them control and deal with their illnesses. Numerous studies have shown CBT to be just as effective as other forms of therapy and medications. Here we will discuss this further.
What Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Do?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy involves different methods to help individuals’ brains to overcome their mental illnesses. The central ideology of CBT is believing that your thought pattern affects how your emotions play, which in turn affects your behavior. Some methods they use to help are mentioned below:
1) Reframe Thoughts In A More Positive Way
It involves associating an adverse or challenging situation in a more positive way. It is especially beneficial for people who assume the worst in situations or overthink.
The therapists will ask you how you see certain situations and help you learn to reframe them. For example, when food does not taste how you imagined it would, do not judge yourself harshly and say you can’t cook. Instant go, ‘It’s my first time cooking this, and I’ll keep practicing and get better,’ or ‘I can eat this. And I will check what I can do to make it even better.
2) Role Play And Exposure
Once you or your therapist feels like you’re ready, then you will be slowly exposed to your triggers. First, using role play to disclose a disconnected form of a related uncomfortable situation. Using problem-solving skills, your therapists will aid you in finding ways to overcome difficult problems. Then, when they see you are ready, they expose you to your triggers in a controlled setting.
3) Learning To Calm One’s Mind
There are different methods to calm yourself in stressful situations. Many CBTs guide patients into learning to self-soothe when faced with a trying situation. While not all therapists perform like this, it does give patients more confidence, giving off the notion that they are more capable of managing themselves than they previously thought.
Finding activities, music, hobbies or breathing exercises that you find distracting and fun, and yet can still be time managed- being careful not to make these hobbies a form of escapism. Allow yourself 25-30 minutes to relax, take in all the emotions and then release them through your chosen hobby.
4) Learning To Recognize And Understand The Disorders
There are no problems that can be fixed without fully understanding them first. Therapists can not guide them on the right path of recovery without fully grasping the issues patients face. There are many cases where people come in and think their problems are more severe than they are or vice versa.
The learning process usually involves asking patients a series of questions, including creating imaginary scenarios and asking how they would react or how they feel about it. Or simply hearing what the patients tell them.
And although treatments are done by professionals, studies show improvements in individuals using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for self-treatment. Improvements are there. As long as the patient has the desire to improve, then using self-help will be just as effective.
Conclusion
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is usually used as a short-term therapy. It is an effective method that provides you with tools and coping methods to help solve your problems. This form of therapy believes that the way to change your behavior is to change how you perceive things and react to situations.
CBT encourages us to see things in a positive light instead of thinking negatively. The central ideology is that if we can reframe how we think, it changes how we behave. Although this method is different from the usual forms of therapy, evidence shows its effectiveness in treating a wide range of mental illnesses. And with its growing popularity, more research is being done to improve its efficacy for patients. Hope this article helped you understand all that CBT can offer.
