StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies" discusses that according to Dr. Greg Mulhauser, Cognitive therapy (or cognitive behavioural therapy) helps the client to uncover and alter distortions of thought or perceptions which may be causing or prolonging psychological distress…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.8% of users find it useful
Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies"

WORK ESSAY Cognitive Behavioural Therapy According to Dr. Greg Mulhauser, Cognitive therapy (or cognitive behavioural therapy) helps the client to uncover and alter distortions of thought or perceptions which may be causing or prolonging psychological distress. Cognitive therapy suggests that psychological distress is caused by distorted thoughts about stimuli giving rise to distressed emotions. The theory is particularly well developed (and empirically supported) in the case of depression, where clients frequently experience unduly negative thoughts which arise automatically even in response to stimuli which might otherwise be experienced as positive. For instance, a depressed client hearing "please stop talking in class" might think "everything I do is wrong; there is no point in even trying". The same client might hear "you've received top marks on your essay" and think "that was a fluke; I won't ever get a mark like that again", or he might hear "you've really improved over the last term" and think "I was really abysmal at the start of term". Any of these thoughts could lead to feelings of hopelessness or reduced self esteem, maintaining or worsening the individual's depression. Usually cognitive therapeutic work is informed by an awareness of the role of the client's behaviour as well (thus the term 'cognitive behavioural therapy', or CBT). The task of cognitive therapy or CBT is partly to understand how the three components of emotions, behaviours and thoughts interrelate, and how they may be influenced by external stimuli -- including events which may have occurred early in the client's life. (http://counsellingresource.com/types/cognitive-therapy) Therefore, in order for me (as a behavioural therapist) to help the child, I should, first of all, know what experience/s or specific event has caused the child to develop this reaction to mealtimes and eating. It would take a lot of effort on the therapist's side, but it is still the client's prerogative to share his/her reason. In some cases, the client is not comfortable talking about their phobia, so it will also be helpful to have someone (especially an immediate relative) with them during the initial interview or interrogation. It is important to know whether the client is comfortable with the whole process of the therapy, since he/she will play a major part in order for the therapy to be successful. Besides, it is the client's behaviour that really matters; all we can do as therapists is to help them overcome the anxiety, depression, indifference, etc. or sometimes, help them to distinguish whether their beliefs are in tune with reality. In addition, still according from Dr. Mulhauser, clients who are comfortable with introspection, who readily adopt the scientific method for exploring their own psychology, and who place credence in the basic theoretical approach of cognitive therapy, may find this approach a good match. Clients who are less comfortable with any of these, or whose distress is of a more general interpersonal nature -- such that it cannot easily be framed in terms of interplay between thoughts, emotions and behaviours within a given environment -- may be less well served by cognitive therapy. Cognitive and cognitive-behavioural therapies have often proved especially helpful to clients suffering from depression, anxiety, panic and obsessive-compulsive disorder. CBT works by addressing the way the client thinks and behaves in response to similar situations and by developing more flexible ways to think and respond, including reducing the avoidance of activities. If, as a result, the client escapes the negative thought patterns and dysfunctional behaviors, the feelings of depression may, over time, be relieved. The client may then become more active, succeed and respond more adaptively more often, and further reduce or cope with his negative feelings. It is also important to establish the "we-will-work-on-this" relationship between the therapist and the child. Assuring the client that this therapy is not a one-way thing and that it will involve his whole participation, it increases the client's trust and willingness to fight the phobia or at least alter his beliefs. After this is established, the therapist can now ask for the child's assumptions about eating and test whether it is realistic or not. Therapy may consist of testing the assumptions which one makes and identifying how certain of one's usually-unquestioned thoughts are distorted, unrealistic and unhelpful. Once those thoughts have been challenged, one's feelings about the subject matter of those thoughts are easier subject to change. (http://amazines.com/Cognitive_therapy_related.html) In this situation, let us put the child's eating phobia in a more specific context. For example, (we will name the young child as Ben) I found out that he avoids eating since he was five (let us assume that Ben is an 8-year-old kid when this therapy began). During the initial interrogation, his mother came with him to provide the necessary information that Ben refuses to tell. I found out that a specific event, in which Ben ate something (during a mealtime) in the past that had him hospitalized for a very long time and made him suffer a lot after he was released, triggered this fear of eating. He developed a "everything-I-will- eat-during-mealtimes-are-not-good" mentality. Phobias that are neglected at first will eventually develop and worsen, and in Ben's case, he now avoids eating in general because he believes that whether it is mealtime or not, it will have the same effect on him. Now we see the pattern: the event serves as our stimuli, which gave Ben the thought that "any food that he will eat will not give a positive reaction to his body", and now results to having this emotion of fear to food, mealtimes, and eating itself as a reaction. Then, I could show Ben my conceptualisation and share with him my plan on how to get on with the whole therapy process. In Michael J. Scott's Developing Cognitive-Behavioral Counselling, it was stated that drawing and sharing your conceptualisation of the client's difficulties gives the client a map of how he or she arrived at the present position, and also opens up the possibility that alternative routes could have been taken if the client had known then what he or she knows now. It also highlights the arbitrariness of the client's initial interpretations. This could be one way to persuade Ben to face his fears-clich as it may sound-because it is the only way for him to overcome it. One way of facing it is making a list of the things, events, people, time, or even places that triggers the emotion. Then we will rank them according to the difficulty of achieving or facing them alone. I made a list here as an example: EATING DURING MEALTIMES: Watch people eating in public areas. Watch while your family eats, but do not join them in the dining table. Join the group during mealtime, but do not eat. Join the group during mealtime and eat. Buy food alone during mealtime but do not eat it. Buy food alone during mealtime and eat it. In this example, Ben's list progressed from watching from afar to buying and eating alone. It is important for Ben to realize that the belief as well as the reaction needed to be changed, but not to do it abruptly. It should be gradual, and should always be according to what the client can take at the moment. Time is essential in CBT, especially if the client have had this phobia for a long time. Here are some general guidelines in making a plan: - Build up slowly: start with easy tasks and build up to harder tasks. The first step should make you slightly anxious but not frighten you so much you can hardly tackle it. -Only move on to a harder task when you feel comfortable with the task you are working on. -Practise tasks regularly, once a day is better than twice a week. -Plan things you enjoy so that you have something to look forward to each time you move on a step. -Expect setbacks and do not give up because of them. Everyone's confidence varies. If something is too hard, find ways of breaking it down into smaller steps or go more slowly. -Discuss your problems with your doctor and/or your counsellor or a friend you trust. (http://www.mentalneurologicalprimarycare.org/downloads/primary_care/04-3_overcoming_particular_fears.pdf) After making a list, I could also persuade Ben to keep track of his progress. It will motivate him to keep on working hard and to continue the therapy until such time that he loses his fear of eating. Children are stimulated when they are given something to do and are very agitated to finish the task given to them. This list serving as Ben's goal could help him focus on finishing the therapy. References: Beck, Aaron T. Cognitive Therapy. 12 February 2009. Mental Disorders in Primary Care, a WHO Education Package. 1998. Date Retrieved: February 11, 2009 Mulhauser, Greg. An Introduction to Cognitive Therapy & Cognitive Behavioural Approaches. 12 February 2009. Scott, Michael J., Stephen G. Stradling, and Windy Dryden. (1995) Developing Cognitive Behavioural Counselling, 13-16. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Cognitive therapy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1511560-cognitive-therapy
(Cognitive Therapy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)
https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1511560-cognitive-therapy.
“Cognitive Therapy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1511560-cognitive-therapy.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies

Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Psychotherapy

The findings of this research will provide insight of CBT that presupposes both cognitive and subsequent behavioural changes in the patients.... The historical development of cognitive behavioural therapies can be traced back to Stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy.... Definition and Meaning of CBT There are many varieties of cognitive behavioural therapies practiced today and it is quite difficult to define cognitive behavioural therapy in such a way so as to include all these types of cognitive therapies....
18 Pages (4500 words) Essay

The psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapies

Although hypnosis could be equally applicable in analytic and behavioral therapies, the nature of the hypnotic relationship brings warrants changes into the treatment structure which sets it off from non-hypnotic forms of therapy.... This paper explores the differences between cognitive-behavioural Therapy (BCT) and the Psychodynamic Therapy (PT) approaches and their role in clinical hypnosis....
14 Pages (3500 words) Essay

Current Thinking in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Regarding the Therapeutic Relationship

A Brief OverviewAccording to the expert opinion, cognitive and behavioral psychotherapies are a variety of therapies based on concepts and principles resulting from psychological models of human emotion and behavior.... heoretical Perspective and Terminology Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is definitely one of the main orientations of psychotherapy and represents an exclusive category of psychological intrusion since it derives from cognitive and behavioral psychological models of human behavior that comprise, for example, theories of normal and abnormal growth, and theories of sentiment and psychopathology....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Behaviour and Cognitive Therapies According to Psychotherapy

The paper describes a diverse range of social, environmental, biological and psychological factors that can have an impact on an individual's mental health due to which, people can develop symptoms and behaviours that are distressing to themselves or others.... ... ... ... The symptoms and behaviours may require treatment, rehabilitation or in some cases even hospitalization....
14 Pages (3500 words) Research Paper

Counselling: Contemporary Behavioural and Cognitive Theory

In the report 'Counselling: Contemporary Behavioural and cognitive Theory' the author focuses on the contemporary development of the behavioral and cognitive tradition of counseling, which has managed to undergo complex and dynamic processes.... The author states that the development of cognitive therapy is different from other types of psychotherapy in the sense that it focuses on the coordination of empirical investigation, reality testing, and problem-solving involving the patient and the therapist....
8 Pages (2000 words) Coursework

Reviewing Reality, Feminist, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapies

This paper "Reviewing Reality, Feminist, and Cognitive Behavioural therapies" explores the goals, techniques, and client/counselor relationship typical of three approaches: Reality Therapy, Feminist Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.... he counselor takes on the role of trusted ally and caring confidante, constantly guiding toward more beneficial options and responsible behavior (National Association of cognitive-Behavioral Therapists, 2013).... The focus must be uncompromising (National Association of cognitive-Behavioral Therapists, 2013)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Report

The Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy Skills

The paper "The cognitive-behavioural Therapy Skills" describes that the model has various features including a highly structured nature, time-limited, founded on an educational model, based on stoicism philosophy, directive, employs Socratic technique, and depend on inductive method.... art 1 and 2History of cognitive-behavioural TherapyCBT entails a general categorisation of psychotherapy, and many CBT approaches are in the category.... These include cognitive Therapy, Rational Emotive Behaviour, Schema Focused Therapy, Rational Living Therapy, as well as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy....
12 Pages (3000 words) Assignment

Cognitive-Behavioral and Psychodynamic Therapies Critique

rom a cognitive-behavioral theory, Jane has to change how she is thinking, that is cognitive and what she does, that is behavior.... The study "Cognitive-Behavioral and Psychodynamic therapies Critique" critically analyzes the way to work with the clients from both Cognitive-Behavioral and Psychodynamic therapies perspectives.... Both cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic therapies will be used in analyzing the case study below find out their similarities and difference and choose which type of therapy between the aforementioned will help Jane overcome the problems that she is facing....
7 Pages (1750 words) Case Study
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us