Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Your Mental Health

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is among the list of therapeutic modalities KindlyMD therapists are trained in. Despite being one of the most utilized therapies in modern mental health, so many people either know nothing about CBT or misunderstand what it is.

We hope to clear up some of the confusion by educating our patients about CBT. This post may be a starting point for you. CBT is an extremely helpful therapy for a variety of mental health conditions. But even people without diagnosed conditions can benefit from it.

CBT Is a Talking Therapy

The first thing to know is that CBT is a talking therapy. Its roots go back millennia. However, the modern practice of CBT was first developed in the 1950s as a potential means of modifying learning and behavior by paying attention to cognition.

In the simplest possible terms, CBT is rooted in thoughts – i.e., cognition. A person's thoughts on any particular matter influence feelings and behaviors. So by changing one's thoughts and behaviors, one can also change the way they feel. It is an oversimplification but one that illustrates the basic premise of CBT well enough.

A Wide Variety of Applications

People once thought of CBT as being suitable only for people with severe mental illness. We no longer believe that to be true. In fact, CBT has proven itself helpful in so many ways. Here are just a few examples:

• Managing mental illness symptoms
• Identifying and managing emotions.Coping with stressful situations
• Resolving conflicts in more productive ways
• Overcoming loss or grief.Overcoming emotional trauma

CBT has also been harnessed to help manage physical symptoms. For example, CBT is now a common tool in pain medicine to help manage chronic pain. It can be used in the treatment of PTSD, eating disorders, sleep disorders, and many more.

A Goal Oriented Therapy

Here's something else fascinating about CBT: unlike many other types of psychotherapy, CBT is not open ended. It is goal oriented and time limited. Complete the goals and you complete the therapy.

Although therapists are free to conduct CBT with some flexibility, most follow a general 4-step process as follows:

• Identification – The first step is to identify the particular issues in the patient's life with which they need help. They could include everything from grief to anger and a medical condition to mental health disorder.

• Awareness – The second step is for the patient to become aware of their thoughts, emotions, and beliefs about the issues they are dealing with. Patients are encouraged to talk a lot. They are also encouraged to observe what they are saying as they speak. Some therapists even encourage journaling.

• Recognition – The third step is recognizing inaccurate and negative thoughts. For example, a patient might believe something to be true even though it is demonstrably false. A patient might also display negative thoughts that are out of proportion with the issue at hand.

• Reshape – The final step is to reshape those negative and inaccurate thoughts, making them positive and accurate. Reshaping thoughts helps the individual change behaviors, reactions, and emotional responses.

One last thing to note as we close this post is that CBT tends to run a course of 5-20 sessions. At the conclusion, a patient should walk away thinking differently and, when necessary, coping more effectively.

So there you have it. Now you know the basics of CBT. It is one of a number of therapies we offer at KindlyMD. We'd be happy to sit and discuss it in more depth if you think you might benefit from our mental health services.