Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Analysis

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) was founded by Dr. Aaron T. Beck in the 1960s, while he was a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania. Having studied and practiced psychoanalysis, Dr.Beck designed and carried out numerous experiments to test psychoanalytic concepts of depression.
Cognitive behavioural therapy has comprehensive evidence as a prevailing intervention for mental health problems in adults. Beck defined cognitive behavioural therapy as an active, directive, time-limited, structured approach used to treat a variety of psychiatric disorders (Beck, et al, 1979, p.3). Cognitive behavioural therapy can help change how one thinks (cognitive) and what one does (behaviour). Unlike some of the other talking treatments, it concentrates

Instead of focusing on the causes of distress or symptoms in the past, it looks for ways to improve one’s state of mind now. Trust between the client and the therapist is as important in cognitive and behavioural therapy as it is in any other form of psychological therapy (Waddington, 2002). There is a clear emphasis on the client and the therapist working together to form a ‘therapeutic alliance’.
CBT has several defining elements and are an essential part of a client’s recovery process. The client must be involved in the therapeutic process not as an observer or as an occasional visitor, but as a core and key participant. The therapist needs to take responsibility for helping to motivate the client toward a change in behaviour, affect or thinking. The therapist must be able to set up the format and rationale for the client to consider change

The behavioural patterns are modified in order to bring about positive changes in the personality. The therapist may use validity testing technique where he/she test the beliefs/thoughts of the client. The patient is allowed to defend their viewpoint by means of objective evidence. The faulty nature or invalidity of the beliefs of the client is exposed if he/she is unable to produce any kind of objective evidence. Another technique used by a therapist would be journal writing where the client maintains a diary to keep an account of situations that arise in day-to-day life. Thoughts that are associated with these situations and the behaviour exhibited in response to them are also mentioned in the diary. The therapist and the client together review the matter written in the journal and find out maladaptive thought pattern. The discussion that takes place between them proves to be useful in finding different ways in which behaviour of the client gets affected. Alternatively, modelling is one of the cognitive therapy techniques in which therapists perform role-playing exercises aimed at responding in a way that is helpful to overcome difficult situations. For example, the client has a fear of being surrounded by large crowds and cannot enter a supermarket to purchase groceries. The client makes use of this behaviour or thought