Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

What Can CBT Do to Help You?

CBT is a type of mental health treatment used in inpatient treatment centers, outpatient programs, and mental health retreats. It’s one of the most commonly used because it can help you learn about your challenges and how to cope with them. Most people typically need several sessions to work through the process.

When performed by a licensed professional, CBT can offer a number of benefits:

• Manage symptoms: Use CBT to manage the mental health symptoms you have that could be leading to debilitating actions.
• Reduce symptoms: Over time, practicing the strategies taught in CBT allows you to avoid symptoms from recurring.
• Treat conditions: CBT can complement other treatment methods and even help with medications if they are not the right option for you.
• Overcome trauma: CBT provides real-world strategies to help you navigate and overcome emotional trauma related to violence or abuse.
• Maintain sobriety: Those with SUD benefit from CBT’s ability to keep them from seeking substances to deal with negative thoughts.
• Stress management: CBT provides a way for you to learn to recognize stress, consider what is really happening, and avoid negative behaviors in favor of effective decision making.
• Relationship conflict management: This strategy works very well, helping individuals to learn how to handle relationship conflicts in a meaningful way, working to improve communication and resolve ongoing concerns.

Many people find that CBT is versatile. Once you learn the strategies and methods involved, you can apply them to everyday aspects of your life. It’s empowering.

What to Expect During CBT Treatment

CBT happens through individual therapy sessions. You’ll work one-on-one with your provider to explore ways to improve thought patterns and impact. Each therapy session fits with what your specific needs are, such as dealing with trauma or navigating high-stress situations.

Your provider will lead this therapy session in a calm, non-traumatic manner. You can expect:

• Gain information and insight into your mental health disorder, as well as what it means to have that disorder.
• Explore relaxation techniques you can use when negative thoughts arise.
• Develop healthy coping strategies for difficult thoughts and scenarios you can apply to real-world situations.
• Build stress management techniques that give you more control over situations so that your thoughts are not spiraling out of control.
• Learn how to stop worrying, deal with anxiousness and non-stop worrying, and keep negative, unrealistic, or unfounded claims from creating negative behaviors.
• Learn to tolerate situations when you have to, especially in cases where you have been avoiding dealing with the complications to this point.

Your therapist keeps a clear line of communication with you throughout this process. Your initial appointment will include discussing your condition, determining the right type of therapy for you, and then setting some goals that you wish to accomplish.

Steps in CBT

To help you see what the CBT framework entails, consider the following common steps in this therapy process:

• Talk about troubles. You’ll first talk about situations or conditions in your life. It may include grief, anger, debilitating symptoms of your mental health disorder, or relationship concerns. Your therapist will then determine which areas to focus on first.
• Become aware of thoughts and beliefs about these issues. The next step involves sharing your thoughts about these troubles. It may include what type of self-talk you engage in related to those topics. For example, you may want to consider what you believe the situation means about you or your abilities.
• Awareness of thinking patterns. Your therapist will teach you self-monitoring methods. This is a process where you’ll pay attention and recognize the physical, emotional, and behavioral responses to those situations.
• Challenging them. In the final step of CBT, you’ll challenge those thoughts. Your therapist will help you consider whether your view of the situation is based on your feelings or actual facts.

The final step is challenging. Most people develop very powerful views on the way they think and why they believe those aspects. You may have developed these views over a long period of time or even were taught them. Your therapist’s goal is to help you see that how you are thinking may not be accurate and could actually be hurting you. Then, you’ll learn how to change those thoughts in a meaningful manner to avoid the negative outcome.

CBT is a very important component of treatment. These sessions may only last a few minutes or up to an hour each time. Yet, they create very effective ways of changing thoughts and enhancing outcomes.

CBT Therapy FAQs

Can CBT be taught in group environments?

Though individual therapy is common, CBT can also be used in family therapy as well as in group educational therapy sessions.

Does CBT really work?

You’ll need to work on the strategies given to you and be willing to change the thoughts and beliefs you have had for a long time. It’s also important to be open and honest with your therapist to get the most out of care. You’ll likely be given homework to complete and strategies to apply to your current life.

Are there risks to CBT?

There’s very little risk of complications with CBT for mental health disorders or SUDs. However, emotions can occur that may be uncomfortable to deal with for some people. If there are topics or areas you do not want to explore, communicate that with your therapist upfront.