Cognitive Therapy for psychological problems
Cognitive Therapy is a type of therapy that is used by psychologist to help patients with some psychological problems like depression, neurosis, chronic fatigue syndrome and psychosis. It is based on the fact that we respond to cognitive representations of events and not the raw data. The fundamental idea is that mood and thoughts can form a vicious cycle. Cognitive therapy will tackles this vicious cycle by tackling the thoughts. Simple isn’t it! Okay, it is not that simple…
Well, I give you one example of a depression case:-
Amy is a 17 years old lady. She is the only child in the family and her parents put a very high hope on her. However, being under so much pressure, she has failed her examination. Her parents got very disappointed. She feels very low and lost of interest to continue her daily life. She has poor appetite and lost some weight. Her low mood leads to gloomy thoughts and memories and the gloomy thoughts make her feel even more depressed and this lower her mood further. It makes her feel even more gloomy. This is exactly the vicious cycle that I am talking about. The cognitive therapy is to tackle the gloomy thoughts. In this case her poor performance in the examination. The therapist will make her sees that this is not the end of the word, she can sit for the examination again with more preparation and less pressure. She can discuss with her parents to release some of the pressure. She also can pray to god, most probably she will succeed.
This is the process of cognitive therapy:
- Clarify exactly what the thought is ( and do not let it just be vague negative belief)
- Look for evidence for and against the proposition in the thought
- Look for other perspectives
- Come to a conclusion
During cognitive therapy, the therapist will help the patient to find other explanations of his or her phobic disorder by challenging him, for example by examining what “I am a failure” means. The therapist will point to the patients that failing to achieve some goals doesn’t mean that he/she is a total failure.
Hmm, now you know the secret of cognitive therapy. Perhaps you can try this at home. Just make sure you are under the expert supervision.
Reference:
- Oxford handbook of clinical specialties. 5th edition. 2001.
Tags: cognitive therapy, depression, health, neurosis, psychology, psychosis
October 1st, 2008 at 8:07 am
Good post, was certainly a great read.