Blogs

What is CBT?

Developed by American psychiatrist Aaron Beck in the 1960s, CBT is a process where the counselor will focus on a person's behavior and thinking rather than on the person's emotions – as is prevalent in many other forms of therapy today. CBT aims to go into the root of the person's said behavior by changing the negative thought processes into positive ones. The technique also helps the person by giving particular practices and methodologies to sustain themselves when difficulties arise.

CBT empowers the client to control their negative thoughts and has been proved to be as effective as medication in treating clients suffering from anxiety and depression. Therefore, the client is advised to practice the exercises even after completing the sessions with their therapist.

The practice focuses on dissecting the client's negative behaviors into small parts to explore them more closely, find patterns and improve the way they feel. By focusing primarily on your current thoughts and behaviors rather than the past, CBT is said to help you achieve a more positive, rational, and accurate mind and body.

The Problems with Cognitive Behavior Therapy

• CBT doesn’t necessarily work well for all types of conditions, even for depression where it is mostly used. When studied by The National Institute of Mental Health Study of Depression, the other 2 forms of therapy – interpersonal therapy and clinical management (with antidepressants) performed better than CBT.
• The long-term effects of CBT are yet to be explored thoroughly. Since depression has a high probability of relapse, whether CBT will actually help the client in the long term is to be decided. Some studies show that CBT is a short-term patch.
• The client is requested to spend time at home doing exercises related to self-monitoring, journaling, and other self-inspection tools, between the sessions and the long term. It can be time-consuming for the client and many people have been skipping home exercises, thus, jeopardizing the effectiveness of the therapy.
• Since CBT focuses on only current problems, behavior, and thoughts, many critics argue that it does not focus on the underlying mental conditions such as childhood trauma, which would be the root cause for current events.
• While the CBT practice focuses entirely on the individual, it fails to consider the impact the client's family, friends, and surroundings may have on them.
• CBT focuses on the negative feelings, assumptions, and cognitive behaviors rather than the roots of depression. Some examples of cognitive behavior include low self-esteem, self-blame, self-criticism, etc. While these may be the effects, they are not the cause of the client's situation.
• CBT puts terms such as negative and dysfunctional self-concepts on the same pedestal as irrational beliefs about oneself, which is wrong in many cases. If a client has undergone abuse in any form in their childhood, their negative self-concepts are not irrational at all. In such circumstances, cognitive restructuring exercises try to reframe reality, thus not impacting the underlying problem.
• Some critics blame that the method is a practice where unwanted traits and characteristics are seen as a dark spot in our ideal image rather than a clue to our inner truths. Often, even personality traits such as shyness and introversion are being treated by CBT therapists as something that needs to be fixed.

How to decide whether Cognitive Behavior Therapy is for you?

Of course, the final answer would be “it depends” since the effect of any psychological treatment depends on many different factors, including the type of issues or the symptoms the person is facing.

• More and more therapists practice CBT today and some insurance plans (especially in the USA) endorse CBT over other types of therapy. The reason behind such preference is that CBT treatment costs less and it is a more short-term approach compared to other types of therapies.
• Quite often, even if the therapist is experienced and reputable, they might not be a good fit for you. Do not hesitate to ask about their credentials, treatment methodologies they use, and their experience dealing with the type of issues you face. Also, try to evaluate whether there is a personality match. Therapy only works when you can establish a bond with the therapist.

• Online CBT sessions have become quite popular lately, partly because of the pandemic. Be aware that the effectiveness of online therapy depends on your therapist’s ability to observe client reactions and triggers over Skype or Zoom sessions. Therapists, and especially CBT therapists, are trained for direct, in-person interactions with clients, so online therapy may not bring desired results.

• In some cases, CBT might actually cause you more stress and anxiety. Since it focuses only on your current thought process rather than on your emotions and other aspects of your multifaceted personality, you might feel that the therapist cannot understand you, which might cause tensions in your relationship. 
• While CBT tries to break out your negative thought patterns into positive thoughts, it might backfire on you. It might either lead you to falsely believe that everything with the way you live is okay and no cardinal changes are needed.

Make sure to consider these questions before you go in for therapy.

• CBT is known to be effective for only certain types of mental disorders and usually for low-severity conditions. Make sure to check whether CBT has proven helpful with what you are facing. Do your research.
• Make sure to know everything about the psychologist’s or psychotherapist’s credentials and reputation before going for the treatment.
• The length/duration of the treatment, and how much time is it going to entail?
• What types of other techniques is the therapist going to use in your treatment?

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, your treatment will ultimately depend on your therapist and your relationship with him/her. You can even try to interview the therapist before starting out on your actual sessions because it is crucial to know whether it will be a good fit for you. Make sure that you and your therapist come to a common ground and there is clear communication.