Cognitive Therapy

Theroy: Cognitive Therapy

Therorist: Aaron Beck

Focus: Cognitive therapy seeks to help the patient overcome difficulties by identifying and changing dysfunctional thinking, behavior, and emotional responses. Cognitive therapy aims to help the patient recognize and reassess his patterns of negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts that more closely reflect reality.

Strengths: Teaches patients to be their own cognitive therapists.

Weakness: In order to benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy patients need to ensure that they can give a considerable level of commitment and involvement.

Techniques: Therapeutic techniques include identification and questioning of underlying automatic thoughts and maladaptive assumptions or themes; hypothesis testing and Socratic dialogue; and many exercises including activity scheduling, decatastrophizing, decentering, redefining advantages and disadvantages, role playing, and guided discovery. Through cognitive mapping, therapists can map the important elements of their patient’s experiences. (Austad, 2009)

Personal example:  I can relate to the cognitive distortion of personalization. There are times when something might happen that have nothing to do with me but I feel responsible somehow. For example, I used to work with a teacher that was very moody, if I came into work and she was in a bad mood, I automatically assumed that I had done something wrong and she was mad at me. After working with her for half the year, I had to finally make myself go about the day as usual and not take her moods personally.

References:

Austad, C. (2009). Counseling and Psychotherapy Today, New York: The McGraw-Hill

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