Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that can help people with a wide range of mental health problems. CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors all play a role in our mental health.
This type of therapy can be used to treat mental health disorders such as anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, substance use disorder, and other mental health conditions. It is often used in combination with other types of psychotherapy or medication.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques
Many different techniques can be used during cognitive behavioral therapy, all of which attempt to change self-defeating ideas, overpowering emotions, and inefficient behavior, improving overall mental health. Some of these techniques include:
Activity Scheduling
Activity scheduling is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique used to assist people to increase the number of things they should do more of. Identifying and scheduling beneficial habits, such as meditation, going for a walk, or working on a project, improves the probability that they will be completed. This strategy is especially beneficial for persons who are depressed and do not engage in many pleasurable activities, or who have difficulties finishing chores due to procrastination.
Cognitive Restructuring
Cognitive restructuring (also known as cognitive reappraisal) is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique that teaches people how to detect problematic thought patterns and establish more reasonable, grounded ways of comprehending difficult situations.
Cognitive restructuring is a collection of diverse strategies to enhance your thinking, rather than a technique in and of itself. Identifying negative thoughts and beliefs, for example, is one of these techniques.
This involves becoming aware of the negative thoughts and beliefs that may be contributing to your mental health condition. Once you are aware of these thoughts, you can start to challenge and change them.
Challenging negative thoughts is another cognitive restructuring technique. It involves looking at the evidence for and against your negative thoughts. After doing this, you can start to question your thoughts and beliefs.
Behavioral experiments are also examples of cognitive restructuring techniques. This involves trying out new behaviors to see how they impact your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It can help you to learn new ways of coping with your mental health condition.
Tracking thoughts during stressful times, discovering cognitive distortions, and engaging in behavioral experiments to determine whether your views are genuine are all examples of cognitive restructuring techniques.
Exposure Assignments
Exposure is a cognitive behavioral therapy strategy that helps people systematically confront their fears. People avoid situations because they are afraid or anxious. Unfortunately, avoiding unpleasant situations is what keeps feelings of fear and anxiety alive.
People master scary circumstances one at a time through systematic exposure before tackling progressively tougher exposure tasks. Exposure therapy is one of the most effective cognitive behavioral interventions available, with a 90% success rate in treating various anxiety disorders.
Journaling
Journaling your emotions and ideas covers the time of the mood, the source of the mood, the severity of the mood, and how you react to it. It assists you in comprehending your mental patterns and emotional inclinations.
Mindful Practice
Mindfulness is a Buddhist-inspired cognitive behavioral therapy method. The purpose of mindfulness is to help individuals stop ruminating or worrying over unpleasant things and instead focus on what is happening in the present now. Mindfulness is the focus of much recent research in psychology and is at the forefront of therapeutic practice. Mindfulness has been found in studies to improve focus, pain management, and mood regulation.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
This cognitive behavior therapy method teaches you how to relax a set of muscles at a time. As a result, it causes you to relax your entire body’s muscles. To learn how to use this cognitive behavioral therapy approach, watch a video instruction or enroll in an online course. It will calm your tensions and relax your thoughts.
Relaxed Breathing
This cognitive behavior therapy method is all about relaxing and regularizing your breathing. This involves learning how to relax your body and mind. It will enable your mind to approach balanced thinking, allowing you to make more productive and sensible judgments. Relaxed breathing can help reduce stress and anxiety levels. It will protect you from various forms of mental illness.
Skills Training
Many people’s troubles stem from lacking the necessary abilities to reach their objectives. Skills training is a cognitive behavioral therapy approach used to address such skill deficiencies. Social skills training, coping skills, communication training, and assertiveness training are all common areas for skill development. Typically, skills training is accomplished by direct instruction, modeling, and role-playing, as well as problem-solving therapy.
Successive Approximation
This cognitive behavioral therapy strategy is useful for those who are having difficulties finishing a task, either because they are unfamiliar with it or because it feels overwhelming for another reason. The approach works by assisting people in mastering a less strenuous activity that is related to a more difficult task.
It’s the equivalent of practicing addition and subtraction before understanding long division. Long division isn’t as difficult if you’ve mastered addition and subtraction. Similarly, having practiced one activity, another that is a little more difficult feels more achievable.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Los Angeles and Alpha Academy are excellent online resources for information about CBT techniques.
Who can Benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive behavioral therapy may be used to treat a wide range of mental health problems. Healthline lists schizophrenia, insomnia, bipolar disorder, and psychosis as treatable through CBT. Eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and other mental health conditions can also be treated by CBT.
Some people use cognitive behavioral therapy to cope with chronic health problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia. However, other sources claim that cognitive behavioral therapy may not be appropriate for persons who have brain disorders, brain traumas, or other cognitive difficulties.
Ultimately, cognitive behavioral therapy is for persons who desire to play an active role in their healing. While the therapist assists in the breakdown of various ideas and feelings during therapy sessions, each session is likely to include some form of homework designed to integrate different taught coping strategies in everyday life.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at Milestone
Cognitive behavioral therapy is typically provided by a trained therapist or licensed mental health professional in an individual or group setting. If you are interested in cognitive behavioral therapy, have a behavioral disorder or mental illness, or wish to take on a mental health retreat, please contact us at Milestone to see if it is right for you. Milestone rehab is ready to provide cognitive behavioral therapy for alcoholism, addiction, or other mental health conditions You are not alone. Milestone is here to help.