Cognitive Behavioral Theory (CBT)

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) addresses dysfunctional emotions, maladaptive behaviors, and cognitive processes. This is an effective treatment for patients who are dealing with anxiety and depression. CBT refers to a group of psychotherapies that incorporate techniques from cognitive therapy and behavior therapy. Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck are the two psychologists who came up with therapies. Beck developed the cognitive therapy (CT) that focuses on changing the client’s unrealistic maladaptive beliefs and thoughts in order to change the individual’s behavior and emotional state. To help CT is directive collaboration by help teach the client correct their distorted thinking and perception of self,

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the inspired work of Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck which emphasizes the need for attitudinal change to promote and maintain a behavior modification (Nichols, 2010 p. 167). Ellis believed, people contribute to their own psychological problems, as well as specific symptoms, by the rigid and extreme beliefs they hold about events and situations (Cory 2012, p. 291). CBT is based on an educational model with a scientifically supported assumption that most emotional and behavioral responses are learned. Therefore, the goal of therapy is to assist clients unlearn their unwanted behaviors and to learn new ways of behaving and thinking when he/she is faced with an

The roots of the Cognitive-Behavioral Theory lie in the broadening of behavior therapy and has undoubtedly produced more empirical research than any other model of psychotherapy (Datillio, 2000a). Cognitive-Behavior theory is a theory based on the idea that a person’s perspective is what guides the development and the preservation of their emotional and behavioral responses to situations within their lives as well as a plethora of studies that tested learning theories. The Cognitive-Behavior therapy also called CBT, relies on the belief that the person’s perspective also stunts or expedites the emotional and behavioral adaptation to situations as well. This “belief” means that what you or I think governs how we respond to what goes

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a theory that deals with depression and ways to relieve the depression. The theory is based on the assumption that events happen and affect the behavior and emotions of an individual. When a positive event happens, there are three things that get to the depressed individual. First, the depressed child or adult think about the event. The depressed person selectively chose the negative aspect of the event and sees themselves as failure. Second, the emotions of the child or individual go down. Third, what the person does is withdrawal, de-activation,

Cognitive therapy, now called cognitive behavioral therapy was developed by Aaron Beck. Beck believed that dysfunctional thought processes and beliefs are responsible for an individual’s behaviors and feelings. He also believed that individuals’ have the ability identify these distorted thoughts and change them to more realistic thinking in order to relieve their psychological discomfort. This type of therapy is designed to be a short-term, straight-forward and structured approach to counseling in which counselors and clients work together. I strongly identify with cognitive behavioral therapy because I believe all behaviors are a result of incorrect thoughts and beliefs. Irrational and negative thinking can influence an individual’s ability to cope and deal with any difficulties they may be experiencing. I also like cognitive behavioral therapy because it briefly includes a client’s historical background in its approach to counseling. I feel that counselors should include a client’s past experiences when trying to understand at what point the client’s incorrect assumptions developed. I believe that everybody in this world always has a choice on how they handle and behave in their given situation and circumstances. In cognitive behavioral therapy, once the counselor and client have identified the irrational thoughts and evaluated whether there is any evidence to its validity, the client has the ability to choose whether or not they desire to change their distorted ways of

CPT is based on the social cognitive theory of PTSD. This theory focuses on how the traumatic event is understood and how it is being coped with by the client who is struggling to regain control over his or her life. CPT also refers to the emotional processing theory of PTSD which is an extension of information processing theory by Foa, Steketee, and Rothbaum (Mullen, Holliday, Morris, Raja, and Surís 2014). This theory states PTSD emerges from the development of fear in one’s memory that creates avoidance behavior and provokes one to escape these memories. Mental fear builds stimuli, responses, and meaning elements (Mullen, Holliday, Morris, Raja, and Surís 2014). Therefore anything that is associated with the trauma may provoke fear that leads to the concept of escaping and avoidance behavior. In individuals with PTSD, the fear is known to be easily accessible. When the fear is activated by the reminders of one’s trauma, one builds intrusive symptoms due to the information trying to process and enter one’s consciousness. In order for an individual to avoid these feelings and thoughts, one tries to avoid it which leads to the avoidance symptoms of PTSD which include yet are not limited to depression, alienation (Mullen, Holliday, Morris, Raja, and Surís 2014). Emotional Processing Theory states the repetitive exposure of trauma in a safe environment such as a therapeutic setting, helps reduce PTSD symptoms by calming and addressing one’s fear (Mullen, Holliday, Morris,

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) grew out of dissatisfaction of certain therapists with traditional psychoanalysis. Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis were both instrumental in the development of this approach to psychotherapy (Van Bilsen, p. 7), though Beck, a psychoanalyst, is primarily credited with its development. Beck did research on depression, in the 1950’s, which was intended to give evidence in support of the theory that retroflected hostility was at the root of depression, but the research failed to confirm his hypothesis. As a result, he expanded his research on depression and came to the realization that depressed subjects held predictably negative thoughts about themselves, the future and the world around

Cognitive-behavioral therapy was developed by Aaron Beck (Hammen 141). It assumes that the patient's faulty thinking is causing the current depression and focuses on changing the depressed patient's thought patterns and perceptions. The therapist helps the patient identify negative or distorted thought patterns and the emotions and behavior that accompany them, and then retrains the depressed individual to recognize the thinking

Cognitive behavioral therapy is based off the theory that depression is caused by a pattern of negative thinking that may be triggered by upsetting situations (Comer, 2013). This pattern forms maladaptive attitudes, which cause individuals to constantly view themselves, their world, and their future in negative ways (Comer, 2013). Cognitive behavioral therapy is designed to help clients recognize and change their negative thoughts in an attempt to improve their mood (Comer, 2013). This approach also uses behavioral techniques to encourage patients to become more active and try out new behaviors (Comer, 2013). Cognitive behavioral therapy is

CBT is a relatively young model and theory. What we know as CBT, began in the 1950's with Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavioral approach to therapy (Dobson, 2001). Later in the 1960's, Aaron Beck began using Cognitive Therapy in treating depression. (Barlow, 2001. 230) The origins of what we now know as cognitive behavioral theory is said to come from earlier theories and concepts. Credit can be given to early philosophers such as Kant (1782), theorists such as Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology), and behaviorists such as Joseph Wolpe and George Kelly . Frued can also be mentioned, albeit indirectly, for his theory was quite distressing to Adler who stated, “I am convinced that a person's behaviors springs from his ideas.” (pg 306. Milkman and Sunderwirth, 2010). Pavlov and Skinner can also be acknowledged, for their work in learned behavior and conditioning, which directly correlates to the concepts of cognitive behavioral therapy. More recently, A.

CBT was first described by Professor Aaron Beck in the early 1950’s (Wilding & Milne, 2008). In contrast with many of the psychological therapy models of the time, CBT was based on the belief that maladaptive thoughts and behaviours arise not from what has happened in our lives, but from how we think about what has happened to us (Taylor, 2006; Newman, 2013). A variety of approaches are considered to fall within the domain of CBT – these include Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (Dryden, 2009), Beck’s CBT approach, and Meichenbaum’s Cognitive Behaviour Modification (Meichenbaum, 1977) These approaches share 3

The philosophy of cognitive behavioral therapy is that “think and feeling are connected people are creative (Halbur & Halbur, 2015, p.47)”. The key aspects of theory are to challenge the irrational beliefs that we hold about ourselves. Aaron Beck the primary founder of cognitive behavior theory assumed that people can control how they feel and what they think. He believed that our inner thoughts and beliefs affected how we are affected on the outside. One of the key concepts is that the client’s dysfunctional thinking can be derived from an erroneous internal process or bias.

Cognitive behavioural therapy is a major area of interest within the field of counselling. The cognitive behavioural approach has made significant contributions towards counselling over the years. As a result of this the cognitive behavioural approach has become more widely practiced (Dobson and Dobson, 2009). Despite these contributions, cognitive behavioural therapy has experienced a few limited cons as well as effective pros. In spite of this, previous studies have provided evidence, which confirms the effectiveness of the cognitive behavioural approach, to be higher than any other approach (McLeod, 2013). This essay, will examine and critically discuss the various pros and cons that exist within the cognitive behavioural approach. The objective of this essay is to, demonstrate an in depth exploration of the cognitive behavioural approach to the treatment of anxiety. The essay will be organised in the following way. The first section will give a brief overview of the cognitive behavioural approach. The next sections will then go on to critically discuss and compare the limited and ineffective contributions to the effective contributions cognitive behavioural therapy has made towards counselling anxiety. With particular reference to how cognitive behavioural therapy for women with anxiety during and after pregnancy. For the purpose of this essay the abbreviation CBT will be used, as it represents Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) was created by Aaron Beck, a professor in psychiatry in the 1960’s (Beck, 2011). Initially, Beck sought out to prove the psychoanalytic idea that depression stemmed from anger towards oneself (Beck, 2011). However, during his research he found that misleading thoughts and beliefs were the reasoning behind depression. Beck theorized that one’s current feelings about something are derived from an initial encounter that gave meaning to that specific event. So, negative feelings about a particular occurrence can be a result of misinformation (Beck & Greenberg, 1984).

Cognitive-behavioural therapy or CBT is representative of the integration of behavioural therapy and cognitive therapy. It encourages the empowerment of an individual to be able to change how they think (cognitive) and how awareness of particular problematic patterns may impact upon our consequent responses (behaviour) (R ch7). Pivotal to our understanding of such mental health problems from a CBT perspective is Beck’s ‘Cognitive theory of emotion’. It purposes that events and situations are not responsible for emotional responses. Instead it is the ‘meanings’ we attach which reflect the complex interaction between an individual’s history, mood and the context of experience. These