Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Introduction

The cognitive behavioral therapy is a group of treatment of psychiatric disorders including addiction, psychoses, depression and anxiety disorders that share a therapeutic approach that should be based on knowledge derived from the scientific psychology. The cognitive behavioral therapy implies that the therapy must obey relatively standardized protocols. It often evaluates the patient's progress during therapy. The cognitive behavioral therapy also supports the process of evidence-based medicine. CBT have the advantage of addressing the difficulties of the patient in the "here and now" through practical exercises focusing on the symptoms observed through the behavior and the support. The therapist works on the mental processes known as cognitive, conscious or not, considered as the source of emotions and their disorders. Standardizing the practice of cognitive behavioral therapy has contributed to the recognition of their effectiveness by their reproducibility, which is one of the requirements of the scientific method. They are particularly suitable and are widely used for anxiety disorders including phobias and addictions.

CBT has six phases

Assessment or psychological assessment

Re-conceptualization

Skills acquisition

Skills consolidation and application training

Generalization and maintenance

Post-treatment assessment follow-up

Case Conceptualization or Case Formulation in CBT

Case formulation or case conceptualization are two similar terms that are used interchangeably with one another. The two terms are used to define the roadmap that helps in driving the cognitive behavioral therapy. A case conceptualization that answers the two basic questions of the client is considered an effective one. These two questions are why now and why me. Case conceptualization is helpful in providing a clear hypothesis statement to the therapist about the various causes of the problem and the various developmental factors that are associated with the problem. It is also helpful in providing a hypothesis about the interpersonal, social, psychological and behavioral problems that the client is experiencing. Case conceptualization helps in providing a connecting bridge between the information that the therapists obtain using different techniques of assessment and the therapeutic practice that is to be applied to the client. Case conceptualization takes place after a detailed analysis of the considerations and facts that are provided in the cognitive behavioral theory.

CBT is an active therapy in which the psychotherapist exchange with the patient, information, offers her techniques, tips, etc. Among these techniques are the exposure in imagination, virtual reality therapy or in vivo, relaxation, shaping the modeling and cognitive restructuring.

Evaluation before treatment is also called the functional analysis. It has two dimensions:

Qualitative

It is to determine the circumstances in which the problem appeared to specify triggers and those contributing to its maintenance. Several grids allow performing this analysis.

Quantitative

To perceive the evolution of the difficulties of the patient during treatment, the therapist must first measure it. For example, a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) washing, the therapist will assess the time that the person spent in the shower, and other indicators that will help to establish a baseline of OCD patient. Many clinical scales are available to the therapist.

The Therapeutic Contract

It presents the patient and the therapist how he will complete the ...