What is Cognitive Behavior Therapy? | The Chronic Illness Therapist

Hi, I'm Amanda Pratt, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at Imagine Life Therapy and I am the Chronic Illness Therapist. Today we will talk about

cognitive

behavior

al

therapy

. What is it? What is it for? and why so many people use it. It is a specific type of

therapy

that you have probably heard a lot about; There is a lot of evidence and research behind it, so today I want to show you

what

exactly it is and

what

it can do for you. Cognitive

behavior

al therapy was created by a man. His name is Aaron Beck and he developed this form of therapy in the 60s and it was originally called

cognitive

therapy, but now when we hear words like cognitive therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy or even by its acronym CBT, that's what it refers to this type of treatment. about the idea or model that says that dysfunctions in our behavior can actually start with our thoughts, as well as the negative feelings we might have, for example, if you go out and say that a check bounced and then you feel really bad so you might have an automatic thought that comes up right when that behavior happened like I can't do anything right and after you have that thought that's when you really start to feel bad and then as a result of that thought and that feeling you might retreat to bed for the rest of the day and that's the behavior, that's why we say cognitive behavioral theory proposes that our thoughts, feelings and behavior are all interconnected and if we can interrupt this process and adjust it, we can affect our behavior and our feelings in a better way. positive way.

Basically, what we try to do in cognitive behavioral therapy is try to eliminate different thinking habits or beliefs that you may have that could be influencing your feelings and behavior in a negative or unhelpful way. The research and evidence supporting cognitive behavioral therapy is actually There are over 500 studies that have shown cognitive behavioral therapy to be effective for a wide range of different problems. Some have shown it to help with psychiatric disorders, psychological problems, and even medical problems that may have a psychological component. That's why CBT can be really effective for people who have

chronic

health problems because most

chronic

health conditions, as I'm sure you've heard me say in other videos, come with depression a lot of times, depression is the number one condition diagnosed along with any chronic medical disorder.

It can also generate anxiety if we have a chronic health problem. There are many aspects of living with a chronic

illness

that can lead to anxiety, so CBT can be great for those situations and can also help with

illness

management. It can help with different learning disorders like ADHD, it can help with a panic disorder if your anxiety has become so bad that it has turned into panic, which can be helpful and we also have different types of CBT such as anxiety therapy. exposure, which is a form of CBT and many times used for things like social anxiety, so there are a wide range of uses for CBT and it has been shown to be effective for many of them, including chronic illness management.

One of the best things about cognitive behavioral therapy is that it is really formulated and specific to anything. problems that you may have or that may arise during the course of your therapeutic relationship, we say that cognitive behavioral therapy is always evolving, but you can bring a problem to therapy and that problem can generate a specific set of thoughts, feelings or behaviors for you and We're going to look at that specifically for you, so it's very individualized. The other thing about cognitive behavioral therapy is that it really requires you to have a great relationship with your

therapist

.

We call this a therapeutic alliance, the only way cognitive behavioral therapy advances. work is if you really feel comfortable with your

therapist

and feel that you have a good relationship therapeutically, the other thing is that it is a collaboration, your therapist will not presume to know what is best for you, they will be there to help you. It gives you a greater understanding of your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, but ultimately, you are collaborating and working together to understand those things. The other thing I love about cognitive behavioral therapy and something I hear a lot from my clients is that they love it.

It is structured and goal-oriented. Sometimes we can go to therapy and feel like we go in every day and tell what happened to us, but we don't have any tangible skills, goals, or lessons that we learned from those sessions. and the best thing about cognitive behavioral therapy is that it is structured and goal-oriented and we solve problems, we look at what the problems are and then we move towards working on a solution, it offers very tangible strategies and also a lot of psychoeducation. This is something that I use in my practice and something that I have found very helpful for myself and in managing my own chronic pain and chronic health issues, so I just wanted to give you a little more information about cognitive behavioral therapy and what it can do. do.

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave them below and I'll be happy to answer them. This is Amanda Pratt, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Chronic Illness Therapist with Imagine Life Therapy.