Have you ever wondered how your thoughts and emotions have affected your behavior? Or whether thoughts and behavior are inter-related? Is it possible that what you think consciously or unconsciously can actually influence your life and even the lives of those around you?
Often the problems that we face in our lives are because of negative or faulty thought patterns that manifest themselves in our day to day behaviors and we are unable to recognize it. Thus we are trapped in the vicious circle of negative thoughts leading to negative behaviors which again causes negative thoughts. So how do we correct these faulty thought patterns and make life better? The answer lies in Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
Cognitive Therapy
Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a form of psychotherapy which emphasizes the importance of thinking and how it affects our emotions and actions. It is based on the idea that our thoughts influence our actions, our moods, our feelings and our emotions. External things like people, situations, and the environment are not the cause of our problems. Thus if you correct your way of thinking and make a change in yourself you can cope better with the same people and situations and function better in the same environment.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy is one of the shortest forms of therapy available, in terms of time and effective results. An average of 16 sessions or lesser is required depending on the problem. The whole therapy process is structured and goal-oriented. The therapist and the client collaborate on the goal of the therapy, and the decision to terminate the therapy when it has been achieved. What makes it very effective is the fact that each session has a goal which is decided by the therapist and the client. They have to work on the techniques in that session to reach an outcome, and proceed likewise in each subsequent session. Therefore in each session the therapist guides the client towards his goal by teaching him alternative or new ways to think and behave to achieve what they want.
Often our behaviors and thoughts are learnt, so we need to unlearn the faulty thought patterns and relearn the correct thought and behaviours. The therapist educates and aids in this process. Once the person understands why and how he is doing a particular action the sooner he can change it and learn a new action. This can be a time-consuming process thus we have a feature unique to Cognitive Behavior Therapy, known as the Homework to speed it up. At the end of each session the therapist assigns the client to practice the techniques taught in the session and give some additional reading and exercises to be done. This helps in reaching the goal faster.
Empirical evidence has shown this therapy to be effective in problems ranging from Anxiety, Depression, Eating Disorders, Stress, Marital problems, Relationships etc. So Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is an effective therapy to solve your problems by yourself, make a change and enhance the quality of your life.
