Dealing with issues related to mental health can be a challenging and exhausting task. I think most of us can agree with this statement. When we tend to let other forces in life negatively affect us it not only makes us lose our confidence but also lowers our self-esteem. With increasing awareness of mental health positivity, we tend to visit a therapist or a counselor who further takes us through the spirit of various procedures and methods that discuss our emotions and actions in ways that we might not otherwise see them. They tend to enhance our perspective and provide a healthier way of thinking about the same situation. It gives us an insight into how we think and what we do can influence how we feel.
For example, sometimes we might feel lonely, doubt if our friends like us or not, fear that we might never get an appraisal in a job or that our boss thinks ill of us. This just provides a brief outline of the thought process but when combined with a person’s lifestyle and history, a lot more can be understood. These signs and symptoms, if seen on a more significant level and longer duration, might turn into mental health conditions depression, loneliness, self-esteem issues, or anxiety among others. Thus, to substitute our negative thoughts and beliefs with positive emotions, therapists use Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. The name might seem comprehensible and simple, but it has a lot to offer!
WHAT IS COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-therapeutic approach that is designed to influence dysfunctional emotions, behaviors, and cognitions through a goal-oriented and systematic procedure. In addition to its theoretical basis in behavioristic learning theory and cognitive psychology, CBT also uses methods of change that are derived from these theories.
CBT is a therapy based on ‘talking’. It focuses on rationalizing one’s negative thoughts and behaviors. The cognitive errors that one might carry with them, are identified and worked upon. This helps to improve their mindset and thus, solve the day-to-day or bigger issues that are causing distress in their lives. It is an evidence-based therapy proven through scientific experiments and clinical expertise. Many psychologists believe that CBT is more effective than other known and early-practiced therapies, like psychoanalytic therapy. This is because the latter is extremely time-consuming and expensive for everyone to be able to afford it. CBT provides a very systematic and time-based approach that benefits both - the therapists and the clients. It helps mark progress and the resources gained in CBT can be applied to any and every situation that one might encounter in the future.
An interesting fact about CBT is that it promotes being your therapist! In nature, CBT focuses on adopting a proactive approach. This means that it focuses on a comprehensive understanding of a system even before it fails in an attempt to identify how it could fail in the future. Thus, it allows one to identify the key areas of issues and thus make sure they do not hamper their well-being in the future as well. Measures are then put in place to prevent the failure or failures that have been anticipated to prevent relapse.
