How does cognitive behavioral therapy work and how long does it take? It is particularly useful if you are mainly interested in tackling specific problems and are only secondarily concerned with the “why.” ![]() If you feel the need for deep insight into the causes of your problems, cognitive behavioral therapy is probably not the right choice. This can be a considerable challenge, especially with severe conditions such as depression or anxiety disorders. That is why medication is sometimes used at first to quickly relieve the worst symptoms so that psychotherapy can be started.Ĭhoosing a certain kind of psychotherapy also depends on the goals. It can help to relieve the symptoms.Ĭognitive behavioral therapy requires the patient's commitment and own initiative. Therapy can only be successful if the patient actively takes part in the treatment and also works on their problems between sessions. But it is also an option for treating physical conditions such as chronic pain, tinnitus and rheumatism. When is cognitive behavioral therapy an option?Ĭognitive behavioral therapy is used to treat conditions such as depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders, and addictions. These kinds of techniques can help you to calm down instead of getting all worked up with anxiety.īy the way, in Germany, most psychotherapists who are trained in cognitive behavioral therapy call themselves behavioral therapists. When doing this you concentrate on your breathing instead of what is bringing on your anxiety. For example, you can learn to reduce anxiety by consciously breathing in and out deeply so that your body and breathing can relax. In anxiety disorders, behavioral therapy often includes learning methods to help you calm down. Cognitive therapy helps to identify this mechanism and find ways to become more active again. As a result, they feel even more unhappy and isolated. In the second step you work on changing these behavioral habits.įor example, people who have developed depressive thoughts often tend to withdraw and give up their hobbies. ![]() ![]() Behavioral therapy aims to find out whether certain behavioral patterns make your life difficult or intensify your problems. It also helps people to think more clearly and to control their own thoughts better.īehavioral therapy has its origins in American “behaviorism.” This theory assumes that human behavior is learned and can therefore be unlearned or learned anew. Cognitive therapy helps people learn to replace these thought patterns with more realistic and less harmful thoughts. Such thought patterns can sometimes develop into self-fulfilling prophecies and make life difficult for the people affected. In psychology, this generalized way of thinking is called “over-generalizing.” Another distressing error in reasoning is “catastrophizing”: If something disturbing happens, people immediately draw exaggerated conclusions about the scope of the supposed disaster ahead. The goal is to reveal and change false and distressing beliefs, because it is often not only the things and situations themselves that cause problems, but the importance that we attach to them too.įor example, a dangerous thought pattern might be when somebody immediately draws negative conclusions from an occurrence, generalizes them and applies them to similar situations. ![]() The term cognitive comes from the Latin "cognoscere", meaning "to recognize." The point of cognitive therapy is to form a clear idea of your own thoughts, attitudes and expectations.
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