COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THEORY
People with personality disorders have three beliefs about themselves: they are helpless, unlovable, and worthless. Health practitioners should always be keen on their patients’ behavioral changes and beliefs to quickly decide what problems and cognitions to centralize during treatment. According to Toby’s case, he suffers from social anxiety, emotional dysregulation, posttraumatic stress, abuse, and depression. Toby, issues start as he grows up where he watches his parents’ divorce, and he had to testify against both parents so that either of them gets full custody(Cusack,2016). As a child, the issue of divorce brings about stress. Toby grows up feeling helpless because he has experienced many problems while he was young, and he is still going through a lot in his social life, marriage, and workplace. Toby had been in a toxic marriage for a long time where his Ex-wife Katy emotionally abused him; that must have caused stress, depression, and feeling of unworthiness. Emotional dysregulation defines a period where a person has many negative emotions that they cannot control, for instance, fear, anxiety, and sadness. Abuse from marriages and relationships, most of the time, caused emotional dysregulation; maybe that is why Toby was unable to express his feelings to Pam, a receptionist at work. At times, emotional abuse led to self-hatred feelings and thought that the individual in question is not good enough. It creates self-doubt in a person and ruins their social life too. Toby is noted to be suffering from social anxiety; this is seen when he cannot express his feelings to his crush because he is nervous. Social anxiety refers to a chronic condition when it comes to social interactions(Dobson,2018). People suffering from social anxiety disorder undergo irrational anxiety, fear, and feelings of embarrassment. Such individuals worry much about what people say or think about them, which ruins their self-esteem and social interactions. Though he has a degree and skills in his area of expertise, he is reluctant to hold a human representative position. He is depicted as a quiet guy who cannot defend himself in public -this is because he is not confident enough to feel free with his workmates. He experiences feelings of denial when Nellie turns him down when he thought they were dating. Toby suffers from depression because of his childhood and marriage memories that haunt him, giving him a negative attitude and thoughts.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a treatment used to solve problems in people on a short-term basis. It is one of the most used mental health treatment. CBT is a psychotherapeutic treatment that helps people observe and change patterns of their thoughts and behavior, leading to a negative influence in their lives. CBT shows the relationship between people’s beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behavior flow. The two primary components of Cognitive behavioral therapy are central beliefs and automatic thoughts. Main beliefs define an individual’s core thoughts and what they see themselves as other people and the world around them. A client forms thoughts in their mind as they grow up and interact with other people in society. In the case of Toby, who started experiencing issues in marriage through his parents’ own relationship. Whatever a client experiences builds a thought and attitude in their mind towards a certain place ,person or activity. CBT concentrates on negative changes that lead to emotional issues ,social anxiety ,stress and depression in a patient. People are affected by negative attitude because it disorients their moods and personality. Use of CBT by therapist ,helps them observe different changes ,and challenges that could be replaced by productive and positive ideas and mindset. CBT uses various approaches when addressing behavior changes ,emotional dysregulations and thoughts. CBT identifies different changes in individuals’ life. Another type of therapeutic technique used in CBT is dialectical behavior therapy that concentrates on the thoughts and behavior during strategies incorporation such as mindfulness.
Some of the various behavior addressed by multimodal therapy are cognition, imagery, interpersonal factors, and sensation. Rational emotive behavior therapy identifies irrational beliefs, pattern changes, and an individual getting involved in challenging assumptions. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps individuals to concentrate on thoughts and activities that are currently happening. Some of the issues addressed in Toby’s life that make the theory the best to deal with his situation are stress, depression, social anxiety, and emotional problems. Most therapist prefers the model because it is goal-oriented, and the clients are actively involved in every session. Clients and therapists work in collaboration towards a common goal. Cognitive-behavioral therapy’s primary goal is to teach individuals that they cannot control everything that happens around them. People can change their attitude, interpret different situations, and deal with other environmental changes.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is not a precise treatment because it is a general term for therapies. CBT grounds itself on an individual’s belief and how they perceive different events, though the events do not define their actions or what they feel. For instance, individuals suffering from anxiety might think that “today will be a bad day.” The negativity in their thoughts may influence their focus during the day. The perception that the individual has built-in their mind is, the only bad thing will occur today. Individuals ignore the positive thoughts that good things might happen during the day because they already have a negative belief system. If nothing goes well that day, the individual tends to be more anxious before, strengthening their negative beliefs. The individual ends up at the risk of being trapped in negative thoughts and a cycle of endless anxiety. Therapists have a strong belief that every person can adjust their thoughts(Khan,2018). This can be achieved by directly influencing people’s emotions and behavior. The process of changing emotions and behavior is referred to as cognitive restructuring. Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive therapy, believed that an individual’s pattern of thoughts and thinking is created during childhood. Beck noted that errors in cognition lead to dysfunctional assumptions. Some of the cognitive errors and the beliefs associated with them are:
- Self-references: where an individual believes that people pay attention to them when they only fail.
- Selective abstraction: this is where individuals think that their failures measure them because they believe that their losses are the only thing that matters.
- Dichotomous thinking: this is where an individual views the world in extremes.
- Excessive responsibility: An individual thinks they are responsible for their downfall and any other negative thing in their lives.
- Overgeneralizing: A person thinks that if something is right in one perspective, it is valid.
This behavioral process is based on an educational model because individuals taking therapy sessions are taught to unlearn negativity and adapt to positivity. Individuals find it hard to have positive reactions during challenging situations. CBT helps to breakdown big problems into small ones that can easily be managed. The therapist ensures that they set short-term goals for their clients to adapt to treatment gradually. Attitude changes help individuals address specific issues in productive ways(Hayes,2018). Cognitive-behavioral therapy does not only involve sitting and having a talk about a person’s thoughts. It involves sessions that both the therapist and client have set achievable goals that need to be met. This helps in measuring the productivity of therapy sessions. The relationship between the therapist and client is collaborative. Clients are free to reveal their problems without the fear of being judged, and on the other hand, the therapist helps the comprehend what they are going through. Therapists are not allowed to influence the choices of their clients -the clients themselves should make decisions. Therapist gives their clients some activities they should indulge in outside the therapy session so that it can reinforce the treatment. Activities help in challenging the client to work on themselves even after they are done with the therapy. CBT aids in relieving symptoms and ensure that all issues are resolved, and people acquire different skills that help them solve various problems and modify cognitive behavior to prevent relapse.
The cognitive-behavioral approach is integrated by usual suspicions, methods, and exploration techniques, yet keep up a decent variety of theories about the job comprehensions play in conduct change. Cognitive-behavioral study majors on observations of behavior and cognition using a particular methodology. Cognitive-behavioral theories are used in ensuring flexibility in treating patients and laying emphasis on the significance of cognitive workings. Counseling and Cognitive-behavioral theories are fundamental and influential while dealing with psychological problems(Linehan,2018). CBT is an approach of cognitive-behavioral theory used in observation learning, therapy, and classical conditioning. Cognitive-behavioral theories have led to interventions that have proven to be efficient and effective in treating drug abuse. It is best defined as an overall class of speculations, or many related hypotheses, which have been designed from hypothetical compositions, encounters in clinics, and observational investigations of conduct and psychologically situated therapists.
Factors that cause a change in behavior in individuals can either be external or internal. Some of the external factors are people and events. Cognitive theory is advantageous because most of the time, people can be influenced to change their thoughts. Therapeutic relations should always be vibrant sessions that help both the client and therapist create a good relationship. The therapist should ensure that they can build a good rapport with their clients and focus on the most critical issues during the sessions. The therapist should prepare the client at the beginning of therapy by letting them know that the sessions will come to an end, and they should learn strategies that will ensure that they do not relapse. In a situation where a client is possibly depressed, the therapist should educate the client on depression and give them the signs and symptoms that might show they are suffering from depression. Toby is depressed about his marriage situation and how his marriage ended. He might be possibly suffering silently(Gutner,2016). Depression may cause individuals to be withdrawn from colleagues. Sometimes people are not aware that they are depressed; hence, it is the therapist’s duty to make observations. CBT helps in rebuilding self-esteem in patients. According to a study, negative thoughts take control of many people and lead to negative reasoning. CBT helps people transform from negative thinkers to positive ones and communicate their feelings without emotional emotions such as anger or embarrassment.
In Toby’s case, the cognitive theory approach would help identify and evaluate his thoughts, and the therapist’s concentration should be on how he can embrace healthy ideas. Cognitive theory helps therapists have an interactive session with the clients to ask questions(Zettle,2016). As Toby was growing up, he developed ideas and attitudes out of the experiences around him. The past occurrences directly influence every person in their lives and their daily interactions in society. Cognitive is a very reliable source of information retrieval because it allows interaction between the therapist and the client. Toby opens up about his past issues when he says, ” “There’s no shame in being beaten up by a girl.” Then comments that “My ex-wife used to demolish me.” The therapist can quickly get the reason behind Toby’s behavior changes by the tone he addresses the issues he has gone through and his past attitude. CBT is needed for patients suffering from depression, emotional dysregulation, marital problems, eating disorders, anxiety, and substance abuse. In this case, Toby suffered from personal issues, marital issues, and fear, so that a therapist would opt for cognitive behavioral therapy for his treatment. At the of his therapy session, Toby is supposed to show positive behavior changes at work and his love life. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps individuals control their feelings and prevent them from acting out of emotions or being overwhelmed by emotions.
References
Cusack, K., Jonas, D. E., Forneris, C. A., Wines, C., Sonis, J., Middleton, J. C., … & Weil, A. (2016). Psychological treatments for adults with posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical psychology review, 43, 128-141.
Dobson, D., & Dobson, K. S. (2018). Evidence-based practice of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Guilford Publications.
Gutner, C. A., Gallagher, M. W., Baker, A. S., Sloan, D. M., & Resick, P. A. (2016). Time course of treatment dropout in cognitive–behavioral therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 8(1), 115.
Hayes, S. C., & Hofmann, S. G. (Eds.). (2018). Process-based CBT: The science and core clinical competencies of cognitive behavioral therapy. New Harbinger Publications.
Khan, A. M., Dar, S., Ahmed, R., Bachu, R., Adnan, M., & Kotapati, V. P. (2018). Cognitive behavioral therapy versus eye movement desensitization and reprocessing in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Cureus, 10(9).
Linehan, M. M. (2018). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. Guilford Publications.
Zettle, R. D., & Hayes, S. C. (2016). Rule-governed behavior: A potential theoretical framework for cognitive-behavioral therapy.