Cognitive Therapy: A Closer Look
As a Chicago Therapist, I often use cognitive behavioral therapy to treat anxiety, depression and addictions. The general purpose of this psychological treatment, in which negative thought patterns about one’s self and the world are challenged and reversed, is to avoid potential, and treat existing psychological conditions and emotional imbalances like depression, anxiety etc.
Cognitive therapy is based on the cognitive model in psychology. The model states that an individual’s feelings, emotions and thoughts are directly connected to one another, and that overcoming difficulties in any of these is done through challenging, rejecting or reversing negative perceptions, inaccurate thoughts, problematic behavior, irrational fears and distressing emotional responses. Cognitive therapy sessions are conducted by a qualified therapist who deals specifically with such issues.
The individual undergoing cognitive therapy will have to work collaboratively with the therapist, in order to develop the skills and the ability to modify existing concepts and beliefs and make them realistic and positive. Another important aspect of cognitive therapy is helping the individual with identifying issues, and potentially the source of issues causing negative thought patterns or distortion of reality. In this case, the therapist would have to come up with a roadmap so to speak, pointing out the areas where the person is most challenged.
Therapy Explained
The roadmap approach will also help the therapist isolate the problematic factors affecting the person in question, and help them devise and implement the best treatment approach. Interventions to a person’s internal reality and perception must be done very carefully as they will likely have a lasting effect.
One of the most important aspects or stages of professional cognitive therapy is addressing and challenging erroneous assumptions. All people assume things, assumptions can easily become beliefs, when wrong beliefs cloud judgment, decision making and perception, then the individual will experience serious emotional and psychological imbalance. In many cases, people fall within this vicious circle due to lack of clear goals and the means to achieve and retain those goals.
This would mean that the cognitive therapy course would begin by challenging or cancelling out specific emotions or thoughts which affect the individual’s perception for the worse.
Cognitive therapy began by focusing on depression, anxiety, over generalization, magnification of negatives and minimization of positives, all of which are more or less part of one’s life. In the course of its development, cognitive (behavioral) therapy expanded and began to cover other fields such as interpersonal relations at work or in society in general. Cognitive therapy is also particularly useful for overcoming feelings of uselessness or worthlessness, both of which are serious problems in modern society.
One of the most effective treatment methods of cognitive therapy is overcoming by problem analyzing. Individuals are trained to adapt their response to negative situations, by questioning the initial validity and value of their perceptions and beliefs.
This, along with other treatment methods, makes cognitive therapy a flexible and effective way to adapt a mainstream treatment in favor of an individual’s specific emotional and psychological state in order to address their issues at a much more personal level. Our counselor uses cognitive behavioral therapy in Chicago, IL.