The Integration of Interpersonal Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

My personal theoretical orientation to counseling is Cognitive-Behavioral therapy. Cognitive-Behavioral therapy helps the client to uncover and alter distortions of thought or perceptions which may be causing or prolonging psychological distress. The theoretical foundations of CBT are essentially those of the behavioral and cognitive approaches. CBT leads to a clear, persuasive, and evidence-based description of how normal and abnormal behavior develops and changes (Kramer 293). The term “cognitive-behavioral therapy” or CBT is a term for therapies with many similarities. CBT is not used as a cure and often times used to help with anxiety or depression the most, and may be single or in group settings. There

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a mixture of both Cognitive Therapy (CT), which deals with a person’s thoughts and Behavioral Therapy (BT), which concentrates on an individual’s overt or outside personality. According to Barbara P. Early and Melissa D. Grady, CT specializes in the mental process that can affect an individual’s feelings and behavior, while BT is focusing on the external environment that can cause the behaviors, such as a stimulus (Early & Grady, 2016). The use of the two therapies together allows the

My role as the clinician is quite important. The primary task is to engage the client in identifying cognitive errors, refuting them, and replacing them with more adaptive thoughts. A sound therapeutic relationship is necessary for effective therapy, but not the focus of the therapy. Many forms of other counseling believe that the main reason people get better in therapy is because of the positive relationship between the therapist and client. Cognitive-behavioral therapists believe it is important to have a good, trusting relationship, but I know that is not nearly enough. We believe that the clients change because they learn how to think differently and they act on that learning. Therefore, CBT tries and focuses on teaching rational self-counseling skills. CBT is the teamwork that exists between the therapist and the client. This form of therapy is used to seek ways of learning what their clients want out of life and then helping their clients achieve those goals. The therapist's role is to listen, teach, and encourage, while the client's roles is to express concerns, learn, and implement that learning (Pucci1).

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that aims to help a person manage their problems by changing how they think and act. It is a problem solving approach which recognizes that clients have a behavioral

Firstly, one strength of the counselling relationship which makes it the most important factor is its effectiveness. The counselling relationship allows client and counsellor to agree on tasks and goals (Colin Feltham 2010). Through the relationship the client can become aware of their problems and work with the counsellor to find solutions. The relationship works well in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as it combines interpersonal and technical factors to result in a favourable outcome (Glovozolias 2004). CBT is action orientated therapy used to change faulty thinking patterns to help clients overcome mental disorders such as depression. (Whisman 1993) Discussed five studies that looked at the relationship and CBT in cases of depression; three studies found the therapeutic relationship significant for positive outcome. Unfortunately, in CBT value is placed on technique and therefore there is not much research on the effect of the counselling relationship in this therapy. Although, the relationship is vital in person centred therapy, as it emphasises the importance of the therapeutic relationship between counsellor and client. In person centred therapy the counsellor must find ways of using the relationship to highlight issues in the clients functioning. Person centred therapy was introduced by Carl Rodgers and is one of the most widely used therapies as it focuses on the client's thoughts, feelings, behaviours and needs.

The ego tells us we are invincible, or that we can achieve things that we may have not thought through. Along with shaping our personality healing will also begin when we pay attention to different transferences and the actual treatment of the relationship. Much of this type of therapy is used for those individuals that have somehow attached their emotions to the object of relationships. Hanging on to the favorite sweater, only listening to music that the other person loved. This can also involve, defense mechanisms, and a struggle between the ego(rationality), and super ego (mortality). “Such therapy usually involves once-weekly 50-minute sessions, the length of treatment varying between 3 months and 2 years.” Essentially this particular theory method deals with resolving childhood or early in life conflicts.

They both have a “positive view of human nature and view the individual as not necessarily being a product of their past experiences, but acknowledge that they are able to determine their own futures” (Holder, 2013). They both attempt to improve their client’s wellbeing by implementing a two-way therapeutic relationship where both client and therapist collaborate to enable the clients coping mechanisms (Holder, 2013). CBT and PCT both instil the three core conditions of empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence but in CBT it is used mainly in the establishing of the working alliance (Holder, 2013). In both methods, the relationship between client and therapist is congruent and they both use the skills of reflection, paraphrasing and

The dynamics of the client-therapist relationship in cognitive therapy is a collaborative effort. Cognitive therapists elicit patient’s goals at the beginning of treatment. They explain their treatment plan and interventions to help patients understand how they will be able to reach their goals and feel better. At every session, they elicit and help patients solve problems that are of greatest distress. They do so through a structure that seeks to maximize efficiency, learning, and therapeutic change (Robert & Watkins, 2009). Important parts of each session include checking the client’s mood, a connection between sessions, setting an agenda, discussing specific problems and teaching skills in the context of solving these problems, setting of self-help assignments, summary, and feedback (Robert & Watkins, 2009). The status that CBT has with insurers and funding agencies is a result of concrete and measurable goals, goal-focused processes and clear outcomes-based evaluations/results. Therapy is typically conducted in an outpatient setting by trained therapist in cognitive behavioral techniques. Treatment is relatively short in comparison to some other forms of psychotherapy, usually lasting no longer than 16 weeks.

Unlike Person-Centred therapy Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a scientific model founded in the 1960’s by Aaron Beck. It joins the theories of both Cognitive therapy and behavioural. He noticed that many of his counselling clients had an “Internal dialogue” (Beck, 1979) that was often negative and self-defeating and influenced behaviour. He realised that by working on these internal dialogues and making them positive it could effectively lead to positive changes in the behaviour of the clients. CBT focuses on the images, self-belief and attitudes held by the client and how these things can affect the client’s

IBCT is a couples therapy approach that helps couples facing highly distressed situations (Briggs, Finley & Sprenlete,2015). IBCT stems from Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT); however, due to a lack of outcomes that demonstrated successful long-term effects in couples, IBCT was created (Jacobson & Christensen, 1996). As stated by Jacobson and Christensen (1996) IBCT consists of elements of emotional acceptance and tolerance to address issues that BCT was unable to do. This was done to add a sense of sympathy and compassion to couples experiences and to find solutions to help couples with their problems. According to Briggs et al. (2015) the steps in treating couples using IBCT involve creating a treatment plan, individual and joint sessions which occur during the first four sessions of the therapeutic process. During the assessment session couples are asked to remember and talk about what made them fall in love and how they met in order to find and highlight strengths the couple holds (Mairal, 2015). After the assessment and initial phase is conducted, then treatment can begin which consist of building intimacy, helping couples move from their stuck phase and influencing change (Briggs et al., 2015).

Emerging from early relating patterns, people develop a number of 'working models' (Bowlby 1980) or schemas (Young et al. 2005) about themselves and others. In cognitive interpersonal therapy it is the emotional core of these schemas that it is crucial to understand. These arise from previous, direct emotional experiences and are key to the sense of one's core identity. When they are activated they give rise to direct emotional experiences within the self (Guidano and Liotti 1983) and may not be easily coded into language. This does not mean that core emotional schemas arise only before language, as some suggest (Young 2004); it can also be their direct emotional quality (as in trauma and shame) which is important.

There are many variables that influence the success of therapy for the client, none more so than the therapeutic relationship. The therapeutic relationship is defined as the strength and collaborative relationship between the client and therapist that emphasises mutually agreed goals and tasks within the context of a strong affective bond (Horvath, 1994.) In the therapeutic relationship, the clinician offers care, touch, compassion, presence, and any other act or attitude that would foster healing, and expects nothing in return (Trout, 2013.) Some clinicians believe that the “therapeutic relationship is a precondition of change, others as the fertile soil that permits change, while others see it as the central mechanism of change itself” (Norcross, 2010.) This is not to devalue other variables that impact the success of the therapy such as client involvement and the treatment method.

Today Cognitive behavioral Therapy has been influenced by two major therapeutic approaches: firstly, Behaviorism as developed by Skinner, Pavlov and others in the 1950s and 1960s, where the main research was related to rewards and punishments, or stimuli’ and their response. Second is Cognitive therapy which was introduced or made popular by Beck and Ellis in the 1960s. CBT by definition is a form of treatment that focuses on examining the relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. By exploring the patterns of thinking that lead to negative actions and the beliefs that dictate these thoughts, families can identify and change the patterns in order to

According to Seligman and Reichenburg (2014), “cognitive-behavioral therapy is not one approach, but a term applied to a coherent model that is open to and integrates new empirical findings about a pathological disorder into a new model of treatment for that disorder (344)”. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is structured and directive, relying heavily on the cognitive tools of psychoeducation, Socratic questioning, and inductive method. CBT interprets personality development as a process of combining introspectively reflective cognizance with learned response (CBT, 2010). It can occur through the interaction between the thoughts regarding one’s