Numerous different types of psychotherapy can be used to support mental health and addiction recovery. One of the most popular varieties in use today is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). We are proud to offer CBT as part of the wider spectrum of treatment options available at Highland Hospital Behavioral Health in Charleston, West Virginia.
How CBT Works
Every type of therapy works a little bit differently and has a slightly different focus from other therapies. Knowing what different varieties of therapy offer can help you choose an option that will meet your needs.
- CBT is present-focused. Some therapies focus on past traumas or difficult experiences and how they impact the client’s present life. In CBT, very little time is spent talking about what happened years ago. Instead, the conversation is focused on cognitive distortions that are occurring now. Some examples of cognitive distortions include:
- Black-and-white thinking, which can make people fixate on being perfect and feel bad about themselves when they feel they have fallen short
- Focusing too much on potentially painful events and outcomes and overlooking the possibility of positive outcomes
- Catastrophizing or exaggerating the significance of a bad outcome, seeing some minor problem as the end of the world
- Personalization or trying to blame oneself for something for which they are not primarily responsible
- CBT is based on the assumption that emotional and behavioral responses are learned. This means they can be unlearned, and different responses can be learned to replace them.
- CBT helps clients learn how negative thought patterns cause their emotions and behaviors, not outside people, situations and events. Over time, the client learns how to shift to a more positive, productive mindset, so that they become capable of counseling themselves through difficult thoughts.
- A therapist in CBT sessions asks a lot of questions. This is meant to help the client learn new ways of thinking by making them look at their thought processes and why they think the way they do.
- CBT therapists and clients set goals to work on. These will be discussed in the first two sessions, giving the therapist a chance to plan out a course of treatment.
- CBT is meant to occur for a limited period of time. Some therapeutic modalities last for years on end, but CBT is usually no more than 12-16 sessions.
CBT Homework
Clients utilizing CBT often receive assignments from their therapists that they are to complete between sessions. These assignments usually involve reading, practicing their skills of replacing negative thoughts with more positive ones, or recording their thoughts in a journal, which they will discuss with the therapist in their sessions.
Benefits of CBT
Participating in CBT can help clients:
- Manage mental and physical health symptoms
- Learn coping skills to deal with stress
- Identify ways to manage unpleasant emotions
- Resolve conflict and learn better ways to communicate with other people
- Cope with grief and loss
Clients often find CBT most effective when it is combined with other treatments, such as medication and other forms of therapy.
What Conditions CBT Treats
CBT can be used across a variety of age ranges, in group or individual settings, and for a variety of behavioral health diagnoses, including:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Bipolar disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Schizophrenia
- ADHD
- Substance use disorders
CBT has also been found to be effective in treating medical diagnoses, such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, insomnia, migraines, and conditions that cause chronic pain.
Getting the most out of CBT
Having a skilled therapist is not the only thing that is needed for a client to benefit from CBT. It is also important that the client:
- See therapy as a partnership in which they share responsibility and the ability to make decisions.
- Be open and honest about their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. They need to be ready to embrace new insights and ways of doing things, even though this might create some temporary discomfort at times.
- Stick to the treatment plan. If the client skips sessions or doesn’t do the assigned homework, they won’t progress as rapidly as they might like.
- Be patient. It takes time to work through painful emotional issues and make big behavioral changes.
- Say something if they don’t feel like therapy is working. There may be changes the therapist can make, or it might work better for the client to see a different therapist in some cases.
At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, we deliver evidence-based, trauma-informed care, tailored to each individual client’s needs. CBT is one piece of a wide range of treatment options we offer.
