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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – Learn Everything About CBT

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is basically a sort of psychotherapeutic treatment. It focuses on helping a person to identify disturbing or negative thought patterns that influence the behavior and emotions of that person. Besides Identifying, CBT also helps to change the thought patterns into more objective, positive, and realistic thoughts.

Negative thoughts have a negative influence on someone’s behavior, emotions, and actions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps to effectively change those thoughts into positive thoughts which results in a positive change in behavior. Thus the person becomes changed from the core.

What is the Goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

All types of behavior therapies focus on the overall well-being of the patients. But depending on the types of therapies, the goal might be slightly different. For example- cognitive behavioral therapy has three specific goals. It works to-

  • help the patients to get back to their daily life and do things that they want to do and enjoy
  • make the patient able to solve the problems that make them worried and affect their life negatively
  • adjust the way of thinking so that they can face the things and issues happening to them in their daily lives
History of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

History of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

To know the history of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, we have to know the roots of Behavioral therapy and Cognitive therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a mixture of these two.

Behavioral therapy has been introduced in the early 20th century. Around that time, a number of people working in this filed introduced behavior-centric therapy from their own perspectives. This approach started being used widely by researchers from the USA, UK, and South Africa during the 1950s and 1960s. They were mostly influenced by Pavlov, Watson, and Hull.

The earliest cognitive-based therapy was introduced by Albert Elis, which is now known as Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). He was inspired by Alfred Adler’s notions of common mistakes and their contribution to unhealthy behavior.

Around a similar time, while directing free association sessions, Aaron T. Beck noticed that the thoughts are not fully unconscious as Freud has said. There are certain types of thoughts that are responsible for emotional distress. From this finding, he developed Cognitive Theory where he named these thoughts Automatic thoughts. Beck is known as the one who started the revolution of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

The REBT and Cognitive Theory focus on cognitive factors and are considered the second wave of CBT.

After CBT and REBT were introduced, behavioral therapy started losing its popularity. Also, it was not able to treat depression effectively. From then, therapists started using cognitive therapy with behavioral therapy to test its effectiveness. David M. Clerk from the UK and David H. Barlow from the US successfully developed treatment for treating panic disorder using behavioral and cognitive techniques. After that, these two techniques were merged and started being introduced as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This is the third wave of CBT.

With time, cognitive behavioral therapy has spread its scope and now it is not just a technique. It is now a term that covers all cognitive-based psychotherapies. Some of these therapies are- Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Multimodal Therapy, Choice Theory, Reality Therapy, Metacognitive Therapy, Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, and many more.

All these therapies are a mixture of the elements of behavioral theory and cognitive theory. Among these, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy are most prominent.

How Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Work?

Unlike many other psychotherapeutic treatments, CBT focuses on the present beliefs and thoughts of patients.

In CBT, it is believed that the pattern of our thinking is like a pair of glasses in front of our eyes. Glasses help us to look at something more clearly. Similarly, our pattern of thinking helps us to see the events and behave towards those. How we see things and behave towards those is controlled by the pattern of thinking.

CBT focuses on working on negative thinking patterns and transforming those into positive patterns so that the behavior becomes positive.

A certain event or mental condition may result in a negative mindset toward things, judging things, and jumping to a conclusion quickly. When people have a negative mindset, they start thinking negatively about everything. In CBT, the therapist challenges those thoughts and makes the patient understand that those thoughts can be changed into positive beliefs.

Thus CBT helps people to change the way they think and make themselves more positive towards everything. And besides treating, it also focuses on teaching the patients the art of changing their own thoughts and beliefs by challenging those. Thus, the result becomes more effective and the patients can treat themselves in the future.

CBT mainly focuses on the present beliefs and thoughts. But if needed, it can also look at the past in order to know the roots of the beliefs and thoughts.

What Principle Underlies Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

What Principle Underlies Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Treatments and therapies are typically modified depending on the needs of the patient. But, according to the book Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond by Judith Beck, there are 10 principles that underlie CBT for all types of patients. These 10 principles by Judith Beck are given below-

1. CBT is founded on an ever-evolving construction of the patients’ problems and building a separate concept about each patient in cognitive terms

In CBT, the therapists identify the thinking pattern as well as the behavioral pattern of the patient. For this, a number of elements are focused on. For example- childhood experiences, life events from the very beginning, and even therapy sessions should be considered carefully.

Depending on the factors and what the patient tells about them, an abstract image should be built to get a picture of the condition of the patient. The image becomes clear and refined session by session because every session brings more information.

2. CBT requires a sound relationship between the therapist and the patient

To make CBT effective, a strong trust between the patient and the therapist should be built. The therapists have certainly the main responsibility for this. They should ensure a calm, friendly and warm environment so that the patients feel secure walking into the relationship.

3. CBT emphasizes active participation and collaboration

In CBT, active participation of both the patient and the therapist is important to make the treatment more effective and long-lasting. In both sharing and deciding, active participation of both the therapist and patient is necessary.

4. CBT is problem-focused and goal-oriented

From the very beginning, the patient should set some definite goals. Doing this helps to identify and evaluate the thoughts that affect the goals. When the thoughts are identified and evaluated, it is easy to interrupt the thoughts.

5. CBT primarily highlights the present

CBT should be designed to focus on the current issues and situations that are difficult for them.

The past issues should be brought up only when the patient wants to bring those. Also, if the patient is trapped in thoughts and beliefs from childhood and it is necessary to go to the past to help the patient to free from those thoughts, the therapist and the patient can go back to the past.

6. CBT is educative. It focuses on teaching the patients to be their own therapists and highlights relapse prevention

CBT is not just treating the problem. It focuses on educating the patient about how the process works, how thoughts inspire feelings and behavior, how to recognize own thoughts and beliefs and evaluate those, and how to plan behavioral changes. The therapist has to ensure that the patients can work on their own thoughts and beliefs.

7. CBT treatment should be time-limited

Regular CBT therapies should aim at the time frame. Typically, treating depression and anxiety may take 6 to 14 sessions at most. But depending on the strength of the thoughts and beliefs, the therapy can continue for months and even years.

8. CBT works better when it is structured

When CBT is structured, it becomes more effective and efficient. The basic process is-

  • Introduction- It includes checking the mood, how was the week, and then defining an agenda
  • Middle- In this phase, reviewing homework, discussing the agenda, setting new homework, and summarizing the session and growth are included
  • Final- This part includes drawing a feedback

9. CBT helps the patients to learn to identify, evaluate and respond to their dysfunctional thoughts and principles 

Besides treating the dysfunctional thoughts of the patients, in CBT, the therapists also focus on teaching those. As a result, the patients slowly start growing the ability to question their thoughts and evaluate those. It helps them to help themselves later to turn negative thoughts into positive ones without taking help from others.

10. CBT includes a number of techniques to modify beliefs, moods, and attitudes toward something

There are a lot of techniques that can be used in changing the beliefs, moods, and attitudes of the patients. Depending on the issues, situations, and expected results of the sessions, the therapist can choose the techniques necessary for the patients.

There are a lot available, and a few from those should be chosen which are supposed to be effective for a particular patient.

Who Needs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Who Needs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a type of behavioral therapy that is used to treat a number of mental health conditions. It focuses on improving thoughts and beliefs and that’s why its impact is effective for a long time. As a result, this is a perfect method of treating the mental conditions given below-

  • Anxiety disorders
  • Eating disorder
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Borderline personality disorder
  • Panic disorder
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Depression
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Phobias
  • Psychosis
  • Sleep problems
  • Schizophrenia
  • Problems associated with alcohol misuse

People facing the above problems can get a proper cure if they are treated by cognitive behavioral therapy. Besides these mental health conditions, some physical health problems can also be treated with CBT. In those cases, CBT is not the method that can cure the problems fully but can put a significant impact on the process of treatment. Those are-

  • Chronic fatigue syndrome
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Irritable bowel syndrome

How Long Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Take?

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a process where the therapist tries to change your thoughts and beliefs. Besides, throughout the process, you have to learn stuff so that you can control your behavior and actions towards things. So, the duration depends on your problem and your capability to adapt to things. It is not possible to tell the exact number of sessions you need to get rid of the problem.

However, we can make an estimation, right?

Typically, it takes 5 to 10 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy for a patient to get rid of the problem. Let’s assume that you’ll need 10 sessions. The duration of each session is around 30 to 60 minutes.

According to the rules of CBT, you’ll have to participate in one session each week or every two weeks. Let’s assume you’ll attend one session each week. If so, you’ll need 10 weeks to complete the treatment, which is around two and a half months.

Depending on your problem and issues while the treatment is going on, the duration may expand. There is not a fixed time you’ll need. This is just an assumption.

How Is Behavior Therapy Different Than Psychoanalysis?

Behavior therapy and psychoanalysis both are focused on treating the patient in a way so that the psychological symptoms are reduced. Also, the effectiveness of both of these two depends a lot on the nature of the connection between the therapist and the patient.

You’ll see more similarities between these two. But there are noteworthy differences too. Continue reading and I’ll show the main differences.

Duration

Psychoanalysis and behavioral therapy have a significant difference when it is to the duration of the treatment. Typically, a patient of psychoanalysis has to visit the therapist at least twice or more times a week and it continues for multiple years.

On the other hand, behavior therapies need significantly less time. In most cases, behavioral therapy comes to an end within 5 to 10 sessions. Depending on the condition of the patient, it may take a longer time, but that happens in very few cases.

Foundation of Belief

In behavioral therapy, it is believed that an individual’s thoughts and beliefs are the only reason for the behavioral, mental, and emotional instability of that person. The previous experiences of different life events are not a big matter. To make sure that the impact is long-lasting, the patients should learn the process so that they don’t have to run to therapists anymore.

On the other hand, psychoanalysis believes that mental health condition is greatly affected by the suppressed emotions stored in the unconscious mind. So, to ensure long-term effectiveness, the unconscious mind should be brought out to light and treated properly. Otherwise, the impact won’t be long-lasting.

Approach

Behavioral therapy and psychoanalysis are also different from each other in how they approach the treatment. Psychoanalytic sessions are led by the patients. The therapists don’t fix how the sessions will go. Patients are free to talk here, and the therapist takes notes. The patients enter into the past events of their life to access the suppressed thoughts, memories, and feelings associated with those.

On the other hand, behavioral therapy sessions are led by therapists. They make the patients talk about specific events by leading them through questions and discussions. Thus, they direct the sessions so that they can meet the specific goal of the sessions.

These are the common differences between behavioral therapy and psychoanalysis. These two are similar in several ways and different in some other ways.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques

There are a lot of tools and techniques associated with cognitive behavioral therapy. But not all of those are used for the patients. The therapist decides to use one or multiple strategies after knowing about the patients.

Among all the CBT techniques, some of the most used techniques are given below.

1. Cognitive Reframing or Reconstructing

Cognitive reframing focuses on removing negative thought patterns directly.

In this technique, the therapist examines your thought process in some made-up situations and helps you to identify the negative thinking pattern. Thinking patterns like generalizing everything, assuming that nothing good will happen, or focusing on too many minor issues are some of the thought patterns that one should avoid.

Once the therapist brings such negative thought patterns in front of you and makes you aware of them, you can easily avoid those later and reconstruct your thought process for a positive outcome.

2. Guided Discovery

This is a technique where the therapist starts thinking from the patient’s viewpoint.

After that, the therapist asks the client a set of questions that challenge the belief of the patient and ask for pieces of evidence that support the answer. Also, he may aid you to find the assumptions.

In this process, the patient learns to see alternatives to an issue from another person’s viewpoint. When he learns to see something from multiple viewpoints, it becomes easier to change the perception and wrong beliefs.

3. Journaling and Thought Records

Though recording in a journal is a commonly used technique in CBT.

While following the technique, the therapist asks the patient to keep a record of negative thoughts about something, the source of it, the reaction, probable alternative positive thoughts, and related factors.

A continuous record helps the patient to improve the thinking process, identify the improvement, and experience how positive thoughts can make things better. In this technique, the patients are actively connected to the therapy even when they’re not in a session. So, it is fast and effective.

4. Exposure Therapy

This technique is mainly used to treat phobias or fears.

While treating with exposure therapy, the therapist exposes the patients to the things that make them afraid or anxious. It is done slowly with patience so that the patients don’t face negative impacts. While exposing, the therapist also continuously guides them through the way to cope with it.

The level of exposure increases in each session. As a result of continuous and controlled exposure to the issues, the patients feel less vulnerable and gather confidence gradually to face those later without any fear.

5. Behavioral Experiments

This technique is used to treat anxiety disorder which happens because of catastrophic thinking.

In this technique, the therapist guides the patients through a task that typically makes them anxious. But before doing the task, the patients are asked their predictions about what will happen. After the prediction is made, the therapist and patient walk through the task to see if the prediction becomes true or not.

Practicing similar things a few times, the patients can understand that the predicted things don’t happen always. Thus, in the future, they’ll face less anxiety while facing such tasks.

6. Activity Scheduling

Like the name, this technique asks the patients to do the tasks regularly that they normally avoid because of fear or anxiety. The decision of putting those into a routine is the big leap that people are afraid of. Once those are in the daily routine, the possibility of doing those is huge.

This technique is typically used in establishing good habits.

7. Stress Reduction Techniques

Stress reduction techniques are a common part of CBT. These techniques help to learn how to reduce stress and enhance the sense of control. When the patients can control themselves, they can easily deal with phobias, anxieties, and many other issues. Some of the common stress reduction techniques are-

  • Imagery
  • Deep breathing techniques
  • Muscle relaxation

8. Role Playing

Role-playing is the technique where the therapist and the patient play different roles to make the patient realize what to do in different situations. By imagining different situations and playing roles depending on those situations, the patient can understand how to react or behave in potential situations.

Also, role-playing helps to-

  • Develop problem-solving skills
  • Improve social skills
  • Gain confidence
  • Develop communication skills

9. The SOLVED Technique

The SOLVED technique is mainly used to develop the problem-solving skills of patients. This is a step-by-step proof and the acronym SOLVED guides through the steps. Below are the steps of the SOLVED technique.

  • S- selecting a common or potential problem that should be solved
  • O- opening mind to gather all the probable solutions
  • L- listing the pros and cons of each probable solution
  • V- Verifying the solutions to find out which one would be the best
  • E- enacting the solution
  • D- deciding if the plan has worked or not

Though the SOLVED technique is used for developing problem-solving skills, it can also be used in improving decision-making skills using similar steps.

10. Credit List Technique

The credit list technique is a technique that tells the patients to make a list of the positive things they’ve done for which they should be given credit. Making this list helps the clients to understand the positive thoughts and beliefs that are hidden inside them. It also makes them eager to do more positive things regularly. Practicing positivity brings out more positivity. Thus, a credit list helps the patients to bring out the positives that are hidden under all the negatives.

In long run, the credit list technique helps the patients to understand that they also have the ability to change things positively. It is a very simple technique, but it has the ability to change a person entirely.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Worksheets

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Worksheets

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy sometimes uses checklists and paper works that can effectively work for the wellness of the patients. The patients actively maintain these checklists, which helps them identify the issues and react accordingly. Let’s see some CBT checklists that therapists commonly use.

1. Dysfunctional Thought Record

People struggling with negative thinking are the main target of this CBT technique. The name has already told you how it works. In this technique, the patients keep records of their negative thoughts and the reasons behind them. Also, there are a few things included in the record.

Typically a thought record sheet comes with 7 columns. These are-

  1. Date and time when the thought has arisen
  2. The situation or the event when the thought has come
  3. The negative or dysfunctional thought itself
  4. The emotions attached to the thought
  5. The cognitive distortion regarding that specific thought
  6. Alternative positive though
  7. Outcome

Making a list of the dysfunctional thoughts and continuously assessing those helps the patients to gradually avoid the negative thoughts and replace those with positives instead.

2. Fact-checking

The fact-checking worksheet is an extremely effective worksheet that makes people realize that everything is not facts or truth. There is also something called opinion which is just a thought that can be true or false.

The fact-checking sheet is a worksheet that comes with some statements (most preferably 16 statements) about the patient. Some examples of the statements are-

  • I’m selfish
  • I shouldn’t drive the car fast
  • I’m a bad person
  • And more similar statements

In the sheet, for each statement, the patient has to decide either it is fact or it is an opinion.

This small yet effective paperwork helps the patient to realize that everything is not fact. There is something called an opinion. Recognizing this also makes them understand that all of their thought is not always true or facts. Some are just their opinions too.

This technique helps people to avoid dysfunctional or negative thoughts about something.

3. Pleasant Activity Scheduling

This is an effective technique that helps patients to deal with depression.

The therapist asks the patient to regularly perform or do something for a streak of a week. This can be anything pleasant to the patient. But, this cannot be something that is unhealthy or supports depression. Also, the patients can do something that gives them a sense of accomplishment.

By doing something that pleases, people gradually get rid of the monotony of negativity. Continuing this for a few weeks starts growing positivity and cheer inside the patients.

Thus, by continuously adding some pleasant activity to the patient’s life, the therapist helps them to get out of depression.

4. Graded Exposure Worksheet

A graded exposure worksheet is typically used for people worth social anxiety. It helps them to gradually work out their social anxiety and improve their social skills.

The worksheet asks the patients to make a list of the situations, interactions, or social events that they normally avoid. It may include joining a party, making a phone call to someone, or asking someone to go for a date.

When the situations are listed, it is time for them to rate the situations on a scale of 10, starting from 0. The rating depends on the level of anxiety. For example- joining a party can be 5-6, and making a phone call may be rated 3 or 4. Asking on a date is probably 9 or 10.

After rating, it is time to rank serially following the distress rating. Arranging serially makes them understand which one is the biggest difficulty and which one is the easiest.

And now it is time to start practicing to face those situations. I suggest starting with the least difficult situation and gradually going towards the biggest fear. This helps to gather some confidence before approaching a higher level.

Though the graded listing technique is typically used for reducing social anxiety and improving social skills, it can be used with any technique that needs gradual improvement.

5. Coping Styles Worksheet

The coping style worksheet helps the patients to identify and learn coping strategies by listing the problems.

In this worksheet, the first thing is thinking about any difficulty that is typically identified as a problem. Then it is time to identify the risk factors or why they face such problems and the events or the reasons behind the problems.

After identifying the risk factors and reasons behind those, it is time to list one or multiple coping styles. The coping styles are not the solutions to the problems. Those are the ways using which the patient can deal with the problems. Besides listing the coping strategies, it is also needed to list the effectiveness of the coping strategies depending on the long-term or short-term effectiveness of the strategies.

There is another place on the list that is for listing the alternative coping strategies. If any of the strategies don’t work effectively, another alternative for that strategy should be listed.

Coping style worksheet helps the patients to identify the best ways to cope with a situation and gradually use those.

6. ABC Functional Analysis

This worksheet helps the patients to know about themselves deeply and consciously. Something that leads to specific behavior and the consequences of that behavior is the main focus of this checklist.

The worksheet comes with three columns. Among those three, the middle column contains the ‘Behavior’ that is being analyzed. In most cases, it is a negative action that is often done by the patients.

The left column contains ‘Antecedents’ where the factors or events that lead to the behavior are written. For behavior, there might be multiple factors or events. The right column contains ‘Consequences’ which are the result of the behavior. There might be multiple consequences too. And consequences are not likely to be negative always. There might be positive consequences also.

The acronym ABC stands for the Antecedent- Behavior- Consequences which we list in the worksheet. When a negative behavior is assessed, it helps the patients to understand the core antecedents that lead to negative consequences. On the other hand, when a positive behavior is listed, it helps the patients to identify the antecedents or events that lead to positive consequences.

7. Case Formulation Worksheet

In CBT, a case formulation worksheet is used to identify the factors that lead to a problem and the factors that are blocking the efforts of avoiding the problem.

In this worksheet, 4 types of factors are considered-

  • Predisposing factors
  • Precipitating factors
  • Perpetuating factors
  • Protective factors

The predisposing factors are the external and internal factors that support the development of a problem. These are the core reasons behind any problematic behavior.

Precipitating factors are the immediate factors or events that lead to the problem. The problem happens as a response to these precipitating factors.

Perpetuating factors are the factors that don’t allow the patient to avoid the problem. These factors make them continue the problem time and again.

Protective factors are the factors that can tackle the problems but can’t be that much active because of some reasons. These factors include strengths, adaptive behavioral patterns, and similar positive sides.

8. Extended Case Formulation Worksheet

This is almost similar to the previous one but with an extension. Besides identifying Predisposing, Precipitating, Perpetuating, and Protective factors, it helps to connect thought patterns, core beliefs, and behavior.

It comes in two parts. Part A contains six boxes and part B contains a flow chart. Part A should be completed before jumping to part B. The six boxes are-

  1. The first box contains the ‘Problems’ which are the events linked to a certain behavior.
  1. The second box contains ‘Early Experiences’ which are basically the predisposing factors. It contains the early experience of life that may contribute to the behavior.
  1. The next box contains ‘Core Beliefs’ that may contribute to the behavior. These can also be counted as predisposing factors.
  1. In the fourth box, you have to put the ‘Conditional Assumptions/attitudes/rules.’ It contains the rules you’ve made inside your mind which are perpetuating the behavior. These are typical ‘if-then’ statements.
  1. The fifth box contains the ‘Maladaptive Coping Strategies’. These are the answers to the questions- are the conditional assumptions/attitudes/rules helping you to achieve your goals? Are those making you the best version of yourself?
  1. The last box contains ‘Positives’ that contain the factors that may assist to cope with problematic thoughts and behaviors. These are the external as well as internal factors that can help the patients to break the perpetuating thought cycle.

When part A is completed, it is time to jump to part B. The flow chart in part B is filled based on the perpetuating behavior and feelings associated with those. The therapist asks patients to think of an event that generated negative thoughts. After that, he/she asks to record the behavior and emotion that are provoked by those thoughts. The behavior or bodily sensation is also recorded.

The flow chart helps the patients to check the issues that drive their behavior and the result of that.

9. Cognitive Restructuring

Cognitive restructuring is a worksheet that makes the patients question their thoughts and examine those based on a lot of things. It helps them to understand exactly the points from which the thoughts are destructive.

This worksheet contains multiple pages. The very first page contains 4 different parts-

  • What I’m thinking- the part where the specific thought is written
  • Facts that are supporting the thoughts
  • Facts that are questioning the thoughts
  • Judgment about the thought- whether it is just an opinion or a fact

The second page contains more deep and straightforward questions. These are-

  • Is it a black-and-white situation or there are some grey shades?
  • Is there any chance of misinterpretation? Is the assumption unverified?
  • Is there any other perspective? If so, what are the other perspectives?
  • Are all the facts checked or only the supporting facts are checked?
  • Are the facts true? Are there any overinflating facts?
  • Is the source of the fact dependable?
  • Is it the worst-case scenario?

These questions help the patients to dive deeper into their thoughts and check if they are valid or not.

Cognitive restructuring is a fruitful process for reducing negative thoughts. Continuously assessing thoughts helps the patients to get rid of a number of negative thoughts and replace those with positive ones.

10. Thought Records

Thought recording worksheet is an effective worksheet for testing the rationality of thoughts. It is a very easy technique for evaluating thoughts and understanding that every thought we think is not always the same from others’ perspectives.

In the thought record, the patients write a thought to them. After that, they look for the pieces of evidence that support the thought and the pieces of evidence that are against that thought. When there are both types of evidence written on the sheet, it becomes easier to develop a balanced thought.

Thus, by using a thought record worksheet and evaluating the issues that support or go against a thought, people learn to be more thoughtful later.

Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy comes with a different vision about the treatment of a number of mental disorders compared to other types of therapies. The techniques used in this style focus on the problems and directly work to eliminate those for long-term effectiveness. These techniques require the active participation of the patient and therapist. There are a lot of benefits CBT comes with because it works to change the inner thoughts and beliefs using facts and active participation.

Benefit 1- Support

In most other types of treatments, the patient is the only person who actively takes part in the whole process. The therapist just let’s follow the flow and take notes. But, in CBT, the therapist actively participates with the patient to make it more effective. Thus, the patients know that there is support for them. This aids in fast recovery.

Benefit 2- Raised Self-Esteem

A number of psychological disorder starts from low self-esteem. In CBT, patients gradually work on their problems and experience positive changes in their thoughts. When they feel the gradual change towards positivity, it raises their self-esteem.

Benefit 3- Anger Management

CBT focuses on the underlying issues that cause negative thoughts and allows the emotions to burst. Anger is such an emotion that should not burst because of the huge negative impact it has. Patients who are treated with CBT know the issues and learn how to control anger because CBT teaches people the ways to control different emotions as well as anger.

Benefit 4- Positive Thoughts

Negative thoughts are the main root of many mental disorders. CBT focuses on eradicating negative thoughts and replacing those with positive thoughts. In this process, the patient participates actively. They identify the issues, negative thoughts, and alternative positive thoughts by themselves. Also, they challenge their own negative thoughts. Thus active and conscious participation in the process helps them to turn negative thoughts into positive ones. The change becomes effective in the long term.

Benefit 5- Improved Coping Skills

The inability of coping with stressful situations causes a number of psychological disorders. CBT teaches people the ways to deal with those stressful situations. After CBT therapy, the patients know how to cope with situations that are not in favor. Thus their coping skill is improved and as the result, they can deal with different situations.

Benefit 6- Improved Communication Skill

A lot of issues like being angry easily or feeling shame don’t allow people to communicate with people properly. Social anxiety, depression, and some other disorders are also reasons behind damaged communication skills. CBT helps to grow the confidence inside the patients by growing positivity. This aids them to communicate properly with people around them.

Benefit 7- Preventing Relapse

People who have mental disorders tend to relapse for various reasons. CBT grows the confidence among them by changing their insides and turning the negatives into positives. A positive change inside a person helps them to cope with different issues without collapsing. Also, CBT makes people conscious about themselves as well as their surroundings. So, the chances of relapsing become very low.

These are the common benefits that CBT ensures to the patients. As it focuses on the conscious and active participation of the patients in the thought-changing process, it offers a lot more benefits than the above-stated ones.

Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Expensive?

The term ‘Expensive’ differs depending on a lot of factors like your economic condition, the place you live, and so on. So, instead of answering this question directly, let me talk about the common range of expenses that you have to bear in cognitive behavioral therapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy comes in a wide price range. You’ll find therapies that charge around 70 to 100 bucks per session. Also, you’ll find a lot of private chambers that charge 200 to 250 bucks for each session. So, you can be sure that you’ll find sessions that charge you within a range of 70 to 250 bucks for each session. Depending on the sum of money you wish to spend, you can choose any.

Counting the total cost is not possible for me right now because the number of sessions you need depends on your situation. On average, cognitive behavioral therapy needs around 8 sessions. So, now you can calculate the approximate amount you’ll need to get your treatment.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is psychotherapy. So, if you have insurance that covers psychotherapies, you’ll get the expenses of your CBT covered. If not, you’ll have to spend from your pocket. So, before choosing a therapist, calculate the cost.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has a structured, short-term, and evidence-based approach to treating insomnia which is known as CBT-I or CBTI (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia).

CBT-I focuses on finding out the connection between our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are directly or indirectly causing the symptoms of insomnia. Under the observation of a trained and experienced therapist, CBT-I typically takes 6-8 sessions to properly treat insomnia. But the number of sessions may vary depending on the specific need of the patient.

CBT-I is based on cognitive, behavioral, and psychoeducational approaches to make things effective. How those will be implemented, which order should be followed and other issues are determined by the therapist’s approach and individual’s need.

This approach to treating insomnia uses different components based on the situation of the patient. Below are some common techniques that CBT-I uses.

Cognitive Restructuring

Cognitive restructuring focuses on thought patterns by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.

According to CBT-I, insomnia or difficulty sleeping is the result of a number of misleading and dysfunctional thoughts about sleep. Some common thoughts are- unrealistic expectations about sleep, previous insomnia experiences, daytime fatigue anxiety, and so on.

The therapist identifies the thoughts, helps the patients to recognize those, and replaces those with positive thoughts about sleep. Thus, using cognitive restructuring, the therapist reduces the reasons behind insomnia.

Sleep Restriction and Compression

Sleep restriction is actually the restriction on time spent in bed. People with insomnia are likely to spend a lot of time in bed without sleeping. Restricting this time may drive them to sleep.

In this technique, bedtime is calculated by adding 30 minutes to the actual time that is spent sleeping. For example- if someone sleeps around 4 hours daily, the restricted bedtime will be 4 hours and 30 minutes. They can’t spend more than 4 and a half hours in bed per day. Gradually as sleep increases, the bedtime restriction is also increased.

This is a gentle way of treating insomnia, but not effective for people with some specific conditions. It is mainly used for older people. In those cases, the restriction is not suddenly imposed. Bedtime is gradually reduced for the old people so that they can cope with it. After they get the expected amount of sleep, their bedtime is increased.

Stimulus Control

Stimulus control is an effective approach to treating insomnia. It restricts the patients to use the bed for multiple purposes. In this approach, the patient is told to use the bed just for sleep and sex. Eating, using cell phones, watching TV or movies, etc. can’t be done lying or sitting on the bed.

These restrictions make the patient feel that the bed is only for restful sleep. So, when they go to the bed, they fall asleep easily.

In this approach, the patients are told not to spend awaken time in bed. If they can’t sleep within 10 minutes of going to the bed, they have to leave the bed. Also, daytime naps are prohibited for them.

Relaxation Technique

The thoughts and tension in the mind don’t let you sleep even when you’re lying on bed and trying to sleep. Relaxation techniques help you to get rid of those thoughts and get a mental relaxation that leads to sleep.

Relaxation techniques that are incorporated into the patient’s daily routine are the ones that work better. Some common relaxation techniques used in CBT-I are-

Psychoeducation

Psychoeducation is a mandatory part of CBT-I. It means educating the patients about different aspects of good sleep like its necessity, effectiveness of different related factors, and so on.

Psychoeducation changes the internal thoughts and beliefs about sleep and helps the patients to proceed to good sleeping habits.

Homework

It is an essential part of CBT-I that aids in faster recovery. Homework like maintaining a sleep diary, practicing sleep hygiene, and questioning the internal thoughts and beliefs about sleep are some of the common practices in CBT-I.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety

If you’ve gone through the article properly, you’ve already noticed that CBT believes that negative automatic thinking is the reason that causes different mental conditions like depression, anger, or anxiety.

So, while treating anxiety, CBT focuses on identifying the patterns of thinking, picking the exact thoughts that cause anxiety, and then changing those into positive ones so that the anxiety becomes vanished.

For this, a few techniques of CBT are used to treat anxiety. Through the whole process, the patients can discover their negative thoughts, recognize the sources of those thoughts and learn to replace those thoughts with positive ones.

Once they replace the negative thoughts that cause anxiety, they start facing less anxiety and more confidence.

There are multiple techniques of CBT that can be used to reduce anxiety. Below are some of the techniques that work effectively to help people get rid of anxiety.

Exposure Therapy

Though exposure therapy is mainly used for treating phobias, it is also an effective technique for treating anxiety.

According to this technique, the patients are taken to a situation that grows anxiety in them. They have to face the situation so that they can be acquainted with it. In the meantime, the therapist aids them to go inside their mind and discover the reasons behind the anxiety. Thus, exposure to those situations makes them able to face those in real life.

The situations become more difficult gradually to make sure that the patients are improving. The process is continued regularly until the anxiety level becomes reduced.

It normally takes 7-10 sessions with the therapist, depending on the level of anxiety. Once the patients have understood that they have wrong perceptions and thoughts about different situations, they can treat themselves by exposing themselves consciously to the situations and learning to cope with those.

Anxiety Psychoeducation

Anxiety psychoeducation means letting people know a lot more about anxiety. Many people who are suffering from anxiety just know that they have anxiety about something. They don’t know the source of anxiety, and how those are affecting them. Also, most of them don’t have any clear idea about anxiety and related issues.

Through anxiety psychoeducation, the therapist helps the patients to know about these. When they know a lot about their anxiety, it becomes easy for them to fight it. Also, anxiety is beneficial until it crosses a limit. Knowing this, they can turn their anxiety into something that can benefit them.

Anxiety psychoeducation is an essential part of treating anxiety with CBT. It helps the patients to know more about themselves and their situation and gets an overall idea about anxiety so that they can assist the therapist to make the treatment process most effective.

Coping Style Worksheet

Coping style worksheet is an effective technique that helps the patients to find out and learn to cope with the situations that cause anxiety.

By practicing a coping style worksheet, the therapist and the patient can find out some effective ways to get rid of unwanted situations. Implementing those coping styles in real life makes the patients confident and helps them to get rid of the anxiety gradually.

Challenging Negative Thoughts

Challenging negative thoughts that cause anxiety is another effective way of treating anxiety under the umbrella of CBT. For this, the patients should know the relation between thoughts, feelings, and their reflections on behavior. Also, they should know how their thinking proves works.

Once they can identify their thoughts about the situations that cause anxiety, the therapist has to help them to make questions about those. Thus, by challenging their thoughts, the patients can consciously avoid those. This also helps them to find positive thoughts that replace negative ones.

Homework

CBT for anxiety contains a good amount of homework. In treating anxiety with CBT, there might be a lot of worksheets that should be followed. Those are counted as homework. Homework in this case is mainly journaling the thoughts and associated events and issues.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most effective ways of treating depression. Just like other CBT treatments, it focuses on the combined effort of the therapist and the patients to find out the thoughts that cause depression and replace those thoughts.

CBT is not that much effective in case of treating depression as much effective it is to treat other disorders. Still, it has proved that it is more effective than all other treatments used for depression. So, to treat depression, CBT is a must. A combined treatment design including CBT and medication may help to treat depression more effectively.

Just like other psychological disorder treatments, depression treatment requires multiple CBT techniques. The therapist designs the treatment process and techniques depending on the situation of the patient. But before using these techniques, the therapist should make the patients understand how their dysfunctional thoughts are causing depression. If it is done properly, the patient’s responses become more frequent and effective.

Below are some of the CBT techniques that can be used to treat depression.

Thought Record and Analysis

Through a thought record worksheet, the patients are told to keep a record of their dysfunctional thoughts. After that, the therapist helps the patients analyze their thoughts, their sources, and their positive replacements.

Thus a continuous thought record and analysis can help the patients get rid of the thoughts that cause depression.

Pleasant Activity Scheduling

In depression, the patients suffer a lot and can’t get mental peace because of not doing something pleasant. A pleasant activity scheduling can help in such a case.

Pleasant activity scheduling is a technique where the patients are asked to do something that pleases them. This can be dancing, singing, watching movies, going out, or anything like this that doesn’t do any harm to them. The activity should be done every day.

Pleasant activity scheduling helps the patient to do something that brings mental peace to them. This mental peace helps them to get rid of depressive thoughts for a certain period. Thus, inserting 2-3 pleasant activities keeps depressive thoughts away and aids the treatment to be effective and efficient.

Credit List technique

The credit list technique can be a great and effective technique for treating depression by engaging the patients in positive activities.

In credit list techniques, the patients are asked to make a list of the things they’ve done for which they deserve credit. Listing these makes them happy that they’ve done something that deserves credit. Also, this helps them to engage themselves more in positive works. As a result, depressive thoughts can’t cross their mind.

The credit list technique is a simple but effective technique to reduce the depressive thoughts in someone’s mind.

Cognitive Restructuring

Through this technique, the therapist can find out the thinking pattern and the reasons behind depressive thoughts. There are several thinking patterns that can produce depressive thoughts.

By presenting a fake scenario, the therapist finds out the thinking pattern of the patients. Once he communicates the issues with the thinking patterns and how those are producing depressive thoughts, the patients become aware of those and try to change the pattern.

Cognitive restructuring becomes more effective to find out the core reasons behind depression and treat it when the patient has strong thinking ability and willpower.

Homework

In treating depression, CBT has the scope of using several worksheets. Most of those can be considered homework. Besides, if the therapist wants, he can add homework. It depends on the treating style of the therapist and the condition of the patients.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Weight Loss

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a great tool for weight loss too. It drives the patients’ thought process to a healthy lifestyle. As a result, it becomes easy for them to modify their eating habits and lifestyle.

CBT techniques are a bit changed and personalized when it is to treating obesity. The principles are like but the treating styles are more patient-centric. The customization is highly dependent on the therapist.

CBT for weight loss has no direct impact on weight. It is focused on changing the mindset of the patients, for which the patients start eating healthy, going to the gym, and following other components of a healthy lifestyle.

Losing weight is a complex thing to do because you’ll see a lot of things associated with it. A lot of changes should be done to make CBT effective for losing weight. This is why, for weight loss, CBT comes as a multi-stage program. Depending on the therapist, the distribution of stages might vary. Below is a common multi-stage CBT program for weight loss.

Step 1: Change in Lifestyle

This stage focuses on modifying the lifestyle of the patients and turning it into a lifestyle that promotes health. Proper eating habit with a balanced diet is implemented so that the patients get enough nutrients for their body. For that, their thought process is converted into a healthier thinking style.

Change in lifestyle also included change in regular activities. Small changes in the daily schedule can bring a big impact. Using stairs instead of the lift, walking small distances, and similar small changes are implemented in the lifestyle which promotes health. All of these are done using techniques that change the thinking pattern.

Step 2: Solve Problems with Diet

A number of diet habits can result in obesity. Once the patients are motivated to include the small changes in eating and activity patterns, it is time to focus on the activities that affect them greatly.

Binge eating, comfort eating or eating depending on moods, consuming alcohol without limit, and eating snacks frequently are some of the major issues that cause obesity. Using CBT, the therapist directly or indirectly hits the issues to bring a change in those.

For example- The therapist can make the patients understand the bad impacts of comfort eating by changing their thoughts about it or he can use CBT to improve the mood of the patients so that they slowly leave comfort eating.

Similar things can be done to eliminate other issues too.

Step 3: Correcting Body Image

A huge portion of people who want to lose their body weight has a negative view of how they look. That’s why they get attached to excess exercise or not taking proper food. But this is not the right way to look at reducing obesity.

Obviously, to get rid of obesity, you’ll have to focus on exercise and controlling food intake. But doing this excessively may harm you. So, CBT corrects the viewpoint about their body. The body is a part of a person, so getting a fit body is important. But that is not everything that someone has.

Thus correcting body image, CBT ensures that people don’t gain the wrong concepts about their bodies and lose weight. A healthy idea about losing weight makes it more effective.

Step 4: Restructuring Weight Loss Goals

In most cases, people set a goal that is very tough to reach. As a result, they stop trying after a few days when they find it very tough or impossible to reach the goal.

This is not expected at all. In this stage, CBT helps them to appreciate the weight they’ve lost and anything they’ve achieved. Besides, it helps them to understand setting a near-to-impossible goal is not the way to lose weight.

Weight loss goals and primary goals of life are two very different things. The main thing CBT does in this step is to make them understand the difference between weight loss goals and primary goals.

Step 5: Primary Goals

A lot of people want to lose weight, not because of their weight. There are other reasons behind this. As a result, the weight loss lifestyle doesn’t last long.

In this step, CBT focuses on changing the wrong concepts about weight loss. For example- some people want to lose weight to gain more self-confidence. But self-confidence is not all about body image or losing weight. There are so many things too.

Here, their primary goal is to lose self-confidence. But that won’t be effective to lose weight until they make some weight loss goals.

Eradicating such false beliefs helps people to be more focused on their weight loss goals. Thus, the plans become more effective and the goal is achieved easily.

Step 6: Maintenance

Maintenance is an important part of CBT for weight loss. It helps people to maintain their weight after reaching the expected weight. Many people stop continuing a healthy lifestyle after the weight loss goal is reached. The reason for this might be the restriction on diet and strong routine.

CBT helps them to understand that to maintain weight, they don’t have to follow a set of restrictions always. A diet routine can be broken once or twice and the routine life can be avoided on a random day. To maintain weight, they don’t have to go hard and fast.

People who have become exhausted from maintaining a routine life every day become more interested to maintain their body weight after they know that they don’t have to follow the routine every day for this.

This is an example of CBT for weight loss. The process may vary depending on the therapist. But the core belief is the same- Changing the wrong concepts about losing weight. It makes people understand that losing weight has its own ways and it can only be done when they’ll start losing weight to lose excess weight only. Other driving factors may assist in it, but the only goal should be losing weight.

As weight loss is a lengthy process, CBT for weight loss needs comparatively more sessions. In this case, the patients remain attached to the therapist for a long time.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Schizophrenia

Cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective way to treat schizophrenia. According to a number of researches, case series, case studies, and, references, it is established that CBT is one of the most effective methods that can treat schizophrenia.

To treat schizophrenia, the therapist and the patients work together to link the thoughts, feelings, and actions and make sure that these are positively affecting the patients. The way BCT treats schizophrenia is way more flexible and time-consuming than other disorders.

Typically CBT sets some agendas for the sessions while treating this one. But the agendas are not emphasized that much. Those are easy, flexible, and patient-friendly.

Treating schizophrenia with the help of CBT needs around 15-20 sessions. Each session requires a friendly and engaging environment to make the patient open to the treatment. Depending on the state of the patient, it varies.

Just like other disorders, treating schizophrenia also needs a number of CBT techniques to be used. Some of the common CBT techniques that are needed to treat this are given below.

Engagement 

To make the treatment effective, a healthy relationship between the therapist and the patients is important. Also, the therapist has to have a complete understanding of the situation of the patient. So, the engagement process is very important.

The therapist lets the patients talk about their current condition. With the help of this, the patient’s understanding of the situation and the ways of coping with it are understood. While the patients are talking, the therapist has to guide them gently, warmly, and carefully so that they can express everything.

A healthy, genuine, helpful, and warm environment is a must for the treatment.

ABC Model

ABC model is used in treating schizophrenia as an effective tool to find out the relation between an event, belief about that, and the consequence that happens because of that. This helps the patients to have a clear look at their thought processes.

The therapist carefully helps the patients to change their beliefs they react to the events without putting much pressure on them. The negative beliefs are replaced with more positive beliefs that ensure to have a better consequence as a response to the events.

As a result, later, the patients can stay calm and organize the things to do in similar situations.

Critical Collaborative Analysis

In this technique, a good level of trust should be developed to make sure that the patients are ready to give thoughtful answers to the questions that are directly asked about their beliefs. And similarly, the therapist has to have a proper understanding of the beliefs and thought processes of the patients.

The technique contains Socratic Questioning so that illogical thoughts are brought out of their minds. Questioning the beliefs helps them to identify the reasons that create the ground for psychotic changes. It also helps the patients to know the misattributions and disorganized thoughts.

When the issues and causes are known, it is easier to get rid of them.

Homework

While treating schizophrenia, CBT includes a lot of homework that helps the therapist to understand the thinking pattern of the patients. Besides, homework helps the patients to actively and consciously participate in the process and boost the speed of improvement. Homework includes different types of thought recording and analyzing sheets.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders

Eating disorder is another mental state of mind that can be reduced or eradicated using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. According to different studies, CBT is around 50% effective to stop eating disorders like binge eating, strict dieting, and so on.

For treating an eating disorder, CBT comes with a set of specific set goals which are set by both the therapist and the patient. The goal is set in the very first session. The remaining sessions are straight goal-focused. CBT for eating disorders typically takes 15 to 20 sessions.

Though it is focused on common goals, the methods and treating process varies depending on the therapist. There are some common components of CBT treatment for eating disorders, but the way and order of using those are not always similar.

However, below are some of the common components of CBT for eating disorders.

1. Identifying the dietary rules that are neither common habits nor healthy for the patients. After identifying those, the task is to challenge those by setting some correct and realistic rules.

2. Keeping food records, just like keeping a journal. In the food record, the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are recorded just after eating something.

3. Helping the patient to develop and proceed with continuum thinking replacing all-or-nothing thinking.

4. Designing and implementing strategies that stop binge eating. For this, the patient can practice delaying because unnecessary cravings fade away with time. Also, practicing alternatives is another good option that suggests doing something else that pleases the mind when there is an unwanted craving for food.

5. Making the patients exposed to the foods they fear. This can be done after the binge eating habit is tackled and a healthy eating habit is established. In this stage, the therapist helps the patients to face the food they typically don’t eat.

6. Planning meals. Planning meals helps the patients to know what and when they’ll eat. Thus they can avoid the cravings that arise frequently without any actual need for food. While planning meals, the therapist helps the patients to keep them healthy and précised.

7. Psychoeducation is another important component of the treatment process. Through psychoeducation, the therapist makes the patients aware of the reasons that cause eating disorders, the effects that it causes psychologically and physically, and how to get rid of them. This helps the patients to know what to do and how to do it.

8. Weighing regularly is another component of treating eating disorders. It helps to measure the improvement and keep track of it. Watching the improvement speed, many experimental components can be added to the process.

9. Identifying the strategies that were helpful to treat eating disorders. The sessions are limited but the patients will eat as long as they’re alive. So, they need to learn how to treat themselves if the issue arises again. A basic belief of CBT is preparing the patients to learn to be their own therapists.

10. Teaching the patients the ways to tackle the issues that can cause eating disorders again. This will help them to keep it away from themselves.

11. Using behavioral experience. It helps the patients to get rid of unrealistic thoughts about eating. For example- if someone thinks that eating a burger will cause him/her to gain a five-pound weight, the therapist inspires him/her to check the fact by consuming a burger. Such behavioral experiments can also be done in Fact-checking form.

12. Developing a new source of self-esteem is a component of CBT that sometimes becomes very effective. Self-esteem based on body weight may drive to eating disorders. In such cases, if the patients find another source of self-esteem that makes them happy, there is a huge chance that eating disorders will be decreased.

Some Well-known places for CBT 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is being widely used now to treat a lot of issues. So, you’ll find a lot of treatment centers providing CBT. I’m going to suggest some of those. So, when you’re searching for ‘Cognitive Behavioral Therapy near me’, I hope the below places can help you.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Los Angeles

Cognitive Behavior Associates

If you’re someone living in the Los Angeles area and looking for a place where you can receive CBT treatment, Cognitive Behavior Associates is the place for you. Being one of the largest CBT practices in Los Angeles, this place offers a problem-focused approach that can help you with any issue that can be solved by CBT.

Starting from very common issues like insomnia and anxiety disorder, this place offers treatments for a wide range of problems. All the sessions are directed by trained and experienced people who have both educational and working backgrounds in psychology. As a result, there is a vast chance that you’ll get your problem fixed.

Their mission is to treat the clients using the latest CBT techniques following a problem-focused approach. The treatment procedure is designed according to the condition and needs of the client. Thus, they focus on the exact root of the problem and follow a problem-centric approach to choose the exact techniques that can fix the problem.

While treating, they look to growing up a friendly environment between the therapist and the client to make the therapy effective and efficient. They involve the clients directly in the treatment process so that the clients have a clear idea about what’s going on.

If you want to know more about them, visit their website- https://www.cognitivebehaviorassociates.com/. Also, you can directly contact them via telephone by dialing (310) 858-3831 or send them an email at cbabeverlyhills@gmail.com

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy San Diego

The Center for Stress and Anxiety Management

The center for Stress and Anxiety Management is a place in San Diego that mainly works with issues related to stress and anxiety. The main issues they work on are- Agoraphobia, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Insomnia, Chronic Pain, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Different types of Phobias, and Conditions related to stress.

CBT is one of the main treatment methods they use in order to treat these issues. It is one of the most familiar places in San Diego for treating anxiety and stress. As they are specifically focused on the issues related to stress and anxiety, their approaches are more specific and helpful for the clients.

This place offers a number of educated and trained forces of psychotherapists with long experience. As a result, they are very quick to find out the core issues and beliefs. Once the core issues behind the problems are found out, they use effective techniques of CBT to eradicate the problems from the core.

Before going to them, you’ll have to contact them. Book a schedule by calling 858-354-4077 or sending an email at info@csamsandiego.com. You can know more about them by visiting their website- https://www.csamsandiego.com/

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Austin

Austin Anxiety and Trauma Specialists

Austin Anxiety and Trauma Specialists is a place that offers Cognitive Behavioral Therapy treatment for a wide range of disorders like General Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, different Phobias, Panic Disorder, Low Self-esteem, etc. Besides these areas of specialization, you’ll find CBT treatments for many other issues too. For details, you can contact them.

This place offers in-person as well as online sessions for clients. The sessions are conducted with trained and experienced specialists who are working on treating such problems for a long time. Therapists here are friendly, empathetic, and quick to understand the approach they should follow and the techniques they should use. Being graduated from top institutions, they offer maximum effectiveness.

CBT is the treatment process they use most to help the clients get rid of the issues. For CBT treatment, this place is one of the most known places in Austin. The environment here is designed to ensure a friendly and calm feeling so that the clients can stay relaxed when they’re treated.

To know more about this place and the team, you can visit their website- https://atxanxiety.com/. Also, you can directly knock them through email at info@atxanxiety.com or call 512 761 8521 for booking or learning about them.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Chicago

Chicago Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Centre LLC

Chicago Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Centre LLC is an organization where you’ll find the latest techniques and findings in the field of CBT. They are focused on providing the service in the most effective and efficient ways so that the change becomes established for the long term. So, if you’re looking for a place that ensures an effective and efficient CBT treatment in Chicago, you should knock them.

Their services are designed with a number of skilled and experienced counselors with respective academic degrees. They believe in a friendly and warm approach to solving problems. So, the clients feel safe here and can speak what is in their minds without any hesitation. In a word, the overall approach you’ll experience here is natural and ideal to express your emotions and thoughts.

This place offers CBT treatment for a lot of problems including- anxiety disorders, neurodevelopment disorders, depressive disorders, OCD and related disorders, PTSD, anger, insomnia, chronic pain, borderline personality disorder, school refusal, oppositional defiant disorder, etc. They are specialized and experienced in treating all these issues and open to working with any other issue you might have. So, you can contact them if you’re in Chicago.

847-966-9343 is the phone number through which you can call them to talk about your issue. Or, you can visit their website if you wish to learn more about them- https://www.chicagocbtcenter.com

Final Verdict

In this article, I’ve talked about a lot of things regarding Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, some techniques and worksheets, some issues that can be solved with the help of it and how, and some institutions that can help you with this service.

I hope this article has assisted you to know something about CBT and its components. This is a very effective way of treating so many things that are not easily treated with medications. I hope having a basic idea about this will be helpful for you to make decisions about psychological ups and downs.

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