-
Essay / Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Its Meaning, Purpose, and Benefits
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a school of thought that helps patients focus on their perspective on the world. Although they cannot control or change every aspect of their lives, they have the ability to control how they interpret and manage things in their environment. According to Hoffman (2014), “people often experience thoughts or feelings that reinforce or worsen incorrect beliefs. Such beliefs can lead to problematic behaviors that can affect many areas of life, including family, romantic relationships, work, and school. Putting this into context with someone who suffers from low self-esteem shows that they have negative thoughts regarding their own appearance and/or abilities. As a result of these thoughts, the individual may begin to avoid social situations or even turn down opportunities to advance in school or work. A cognitive behavioral therapist would help the client identify their problems in order to deal with destructive thoughts and behaviors. This is the functional analysis stage and it is important for the patient to learn how certain situations and thoughts may contribute to a maladaptive behavioral process. The second step is to focus on the behaviors that contribute to the problem. The client will begin to learn new skills to practice so that they can later be applied for use in the real world. This may involve learning new coping skills and repeating them so that in a certain situation the client can use their new skills to resolve what they are struggling with. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay A few studies mentioned in this article describe the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy. Each study focuses on a group of individuals who benefit greatly from therapy and highlights the differences between clinicians who are cognitive-behavioral therapists and those who use cognitive-behavioral techniques only. Waller's study focuses on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques for eating disorders. Waller conducted a study of 80 clinicians (69 women, 11 men) and asked them to describe what their cognitive-behavioral techniques were and how often they used them during their session. Each clinician is then invited to complete a questionnaire describing their methods. The study found that clinicians who claimed to use cognitive behavioral therapy but didn't follow the protocol weren't as successful in helping their clients. But those who have followed the protocol have seen great results for their eating disorder patients. According to Waller (2012), “cognitive behavioral therapy has good results for bulimia nervosa and atypical cases, and has some impact on anorexia nervosa.” Those who followed CBT guidelines performed better in terms of patient outcomes than those who simply followed some CBT techniques and did not follow their guidelines. Trockel's study focused on the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia on suicidal ideation among veterans. According to Trockel (2015), "veterans account for approximately 20% of suicide deaths in the United States, suggesting a compelling need for effective strategies to reduce the incidence of suicide mortality in thispopulation ". He also found that there was a link demonstrating the link between insomnia and suicidal ideation. Trockel (2012) also states that “…sleep disturbances are a more powerful predictor of suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior among active military personnel than two well-established risk factors – depression and hopelessness.” With this study by Trockel, he found that the best treatment veterans could receive will come from a CBT intervention, which has shown reduced risk in people with insomnia compared to the use of other methods. According to Trockel (2012), CBT could be a particularly promising intervention to reduce risk in people with insomnia. CBT is also free, as are drug interactions and suicide deaths from prescribed sedative/hypnotic medication overdoses. CBT could become the first intervention strategy to be used with veterans due to its promising statistical data. The study was conducted through 4 months of weekly workshops, implementation challenges, video demonstrations, group discussions, and 90-minute telephone consultation sessions. Veterans who participated in this study completed a questionnaire before the 4-month cognitive-behavioral sessions and then received another questionnaire after the 4 months. Hoffman's study focuses on the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders on quality of life. His study consisted of a meta-analysis of 44 studies including 59 CBT trials, totaling 3,326 participants receiving CBT for anxiety disorders. In Hoffman's (2014) findings, he states that "CBT for anxiety disorders is moderately effective in improving quality of life, particularly in physical and psychological domains." Hoffman (2014) also states that “the study found strong evidence of the beneficial effect of CBT on quality of life. The magnitude of the overall, controlled pre-post effect of CBT on quality of life was moderately strong.” He also conducted a meta-analysis to determine whether treatment delivered over the Internet would be more effective than face-to-face treatment. The study showed that in-person treatment had a better response than treatment delivered over the Internet. Ehde conducted a study on the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy on chronic pain. He looked at techniques that could be used to treat chronic pain and found that the most commonly used techniques are relaxation training, behavioral goal setting and achievement, behavioral activation, drug counseling, pace of activity, problem-solving training and cognitive restructuring. According to Ehde, "About 100 million American adults suffer from chronic pain, a condition influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors and optimally managed by treatments that address not only its biological causes but also its influences and psychological and social consequences. Over the past 60 years, parallel advances in the scientific understanding of pain and the development of cognitive-behavioral therapies have led to the widespread application of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to chronic pain problems. Indeed, CBT is now a common treatment, alone or in combination with medical or interdisciplinary rehabilitation treatments, for people suffering from chronic pain problems of all types. His research concludes that with the therapeutic techniques found with CBT,.