preview

Essay about The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy

Better Essays

The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (cognitive behavioral therapy)

Introduction
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy. The effectiveness has been researched extensively over the years (Dobson, 2001). There are over three hundred published studies about the outcomes of cognitive behavioral therapy interventions. The main reason for this is that an ongoing adaptation of this form of psychotherapy makes it applicable to a vast amount of disorders and related problems (Rounsaville & Caroll, 2002). Despite the relatively great amount of studies on the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy, questions still remain about the levels of effectiveness for different disorders, about the effects of …show more content…

This paper therefore focuses on several known disorders and its treatment by cognitive behavioral therapy. The next section will discuss shortly the content of cognitive behavioral therapy. Then the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for several disorders will be presented as is known in literature. However, it is out of the scope of this paper to present all known literature on this subject. Therefore, literature mentioning het main results about the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy will be presented. The differences and similarities will be discussed and at the end the conclusion will provide insight in the overall effectiveness.

Cognitive behavioral therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy differs in several respects from more traditional forms of therapy. It focuses on two specific elements: cognitive restructuring and behavioral activation. The client and therapist work together in cognitive restructuring with the goal to restructure thinking patterns. In behavioral activation, the client overcomes barriers to participating in activities. The main focus is on the present and on specific problems. cognitive behavioral therapy is a goal oriented and educational therapy, because goals for both the short and longer term are identified and it teaches the client to modify mood en behavior. The client has therefore an active role in learning e.g. coping skills. Multiple strategies are used in cognitive behavioral therapy, like imagenary, role

Get Access