Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy that is successfully used for phobias, obsessive and anxiety disorders, depression, and panic attacks. It consists of identifying and eliminating negative thinking patterns, as well as developing new patterns that help build a new type of reaction and think more rationally. Negative thoughts and anxiety negatively affect mental health, in addition, they can cause various physical diseases. This is a state that needs to be overcome, and this can be done with the help of cognitive behavioral therapy.
Cognitive psychotherapy, or CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) is a direction based on the most modern developments in the field of scientific psychology. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is based on two fundamental ideas about a person - as a thinking, active and capable of changing himself and his life.
If you look at it, it is not so important for us what happens to us, but what we think about it. Therefore, our thoughts, which underlie the study of cognitive therapy, are a kind of “corset” for our emotional experiences and the actions that follow them. Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy is aimed at correcting mental distortions or thinking errors and helping to form more adaptive behavior patterns.
It has been scientifically proven that CBT is the most effective course for depression, panic attacks, various phobias, anxiety, and obsessive disorders. For people prone to introspection, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy is the best means of psychotherapeutic treatment and assistance.
A distinctive feature and important advantage of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy is the development of self-regulation skills, that is, teaching the patient several techniques that allow him to independently cope with newly emerging negative experiences and life problems.
Psychotherapists at the IsraClinic help patients identify and evaluate negative thoughts and change them to more constructive ones, normalize their lifestyle and give up stressful habits, and develop skills to cope with anxiety and depression.
In cognitive behavioral therapy, in practice, specialists use several techniques. These include:
• a technique that involves identifying automatic thoughts;
• a technique that involves comparing yourself with other people;
• identifying logical inconsistencies;
• designing new behavior patterns;
• distraction;
• visualization;
• catharsis;
• identification
As well as several other techniques that help the patient understand the essence and causes of his disease or disorder, apply new beliefs in life, where the main goal is to form a new way of thinking.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy in psychiatry is aimed at identifying the characteristics of the patient’s perception of reality, formed behavioral patterns, unnecessary thoughts, and problems. The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy has been proven in practice: after a course of psychotherapy, patients quickly restore their mental health, adapt to social life, and form a new living space and thinking.
The main indication in psychiatry for the use of cognitive behavioral therapy is patient anxiety, depression, eating disorders, sleep disorders, personality disorders, panic attacks, and increased suspiciousness.
Any destructive thoughts of the patient are monitored by a specialist in the process of cognitive behavioral therapy. Using methods and techniques, a psychotherapy specialist helps the patient change negative thoughts and behavior patterns that lead to pathological processes, disorders, and diseases.
One of the most effective methods of cognitive behavioral therapy is aversive therapy, the essence of which is to create unpleasant stimuli for the patient to reduce the pain of perceiving certain situations or even the formation of dangerous behavior. This technique can be used in the most severe cases - drug addiction, alcoholism, uncontrolled aggression, fears, and phobias. In addition to aversive therapy, techniques such as the token system, self-control, desensitization of traumatic situations, self-affirmation, and conditioned reflex therapy are also used.
Let us note that in modern psychiatry there is a constant improvement of cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, their modification and enrichment, due to which the effectiveness of psychotherapy is constantly growing.