Statistics show that the number of people seeking treatment for mental health concerns is on the rise and that almost 41 million US adults received mental health treatment in 2021. Today’s mental health professionals regard psychotherapy as an indispensable part of the treatment process. And among the different therapeutic approaches, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is by far the most popular.
Often touted as the ‘gold standard’ of treatment, CBT is an objective, evidence-based therapy used for treating a range of emotional and behavioral disturbances. Clinicians prefer CBT because it’s a systematic therapy that follows a step-by-step process, while clients prefer it because of its time-limited structure. Considering how CBT is widely used by many practitioners, it’s worth looking at what it is, how it works, and the benefits it provides.
What is CBT?
Founded by Aaron Beck, CBT combines behavioral and cognitive therapy to address both unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. It’s based on the concept that psychological issues can be attributed to negative thoughts and learned patterns of unhelpful behavior.
It requires recognizing and changing your cognitive distortions, using problem-solving skills to deal with stressful situations, and understanding the reasons for your behaviors. Today, CBT is a commonly used approach among mental health practitioners and dedicated treatment centers like United Recovery Project Florida.
Benefits of CBT
CBT provides various benefits when used as part of a broader treatment plan. Here are some of the advantages you can expect during the treatment process:
Addresses Various Mental Health Disorders
CBT is a highly effective treatment approach that addresses a wide range of mental health concerns. This is especially beneficial when you’re struggling with many different problems. For instance, when you have a mood disorder but experience high levels of anxiety as well.
Even if you struggle with a complex disorder that doesn’t respond to CBT, your therapist can incorporate it to address depressive thoughts that occur as a result of your condition. The reason it works well for conditions like depression, anxiety, and substance abuse is that it helps you practice useful self-help strategies.
Gives Measurable Results
An important aspect of this structured approach is a goal-oriented nature, which allows you to develop highly specific goals and lay out a plan to achieve them. You’ll work with your therapist to identify your goal, starting point, and the necessary steps to achieve it.
Your therapist will evaluate your goals to see if they’re SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely). This makes it easier for you to measure results and see how close you’re getting to achieving a certain goal. And in situations when you can’t achieve your goals, it’s possible to troubleshoot and rework them so they’re easier to tackle.
Helps You Understand Your Condition
In psychoeducation, your therapist will provide important information about the therapy process and the condition you’re struggling with. It’s an important aspect of CBT that aims to inform you (and your family, sometimes) about the condition.
By understanding your diagnosis and symptoms, you’re better equipped to deal with stressful situations and have more control over how you respond to potential triggers. It also encourages your family and loved ones to be more cooperative during treatment.
Builds Confidence in Your Abilities
When you’re struggling with a mental illness, it can take a toll on your self-esteem. This is especially true when you experience challenging symptoms that get in the way of your functioning. With CBT, you’ll learn to spot unhelpful thoughts and irrational beliefs and replace them with positive ones.
As you work with your therapist to achieve the next step in achieving your goal, you’re able to see how far you’ve come. As a result, it builds your confidence and fosters feelings of self-worth.
Improves Emotional Regulation
Another benefit of CBT is that it allows you to identify and manage emotions before they become too intense. Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a type of CBT that can help people struggling with intense and overwhelming emotions.
It does this by teaching you mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotional regulation. This reduces your vulnerability to negative emotions and helps you avoid fixating on thoughts that make you feel more overwhelmed.
Improves Coping Skills
Your therapist will help you set realistic expectations on what you can achieve through the therapeutic process and how long it will take. They understand that it’ll take some time before you restructure your negative thoughts and change how you respond to stressors. It’s also unrealistic to expect that you won’t struggle with unpleasant emotions, feelings, and thoughts. That’s why teaching you coping skills is an important part of the process.
When you struggle with poor mental health, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of unhealthy coping mechanisms when exposed to stressful situations. During CBT sessions, you’ll work with your therapist to build coping skills that help you stay calm in difficult situations. This includes practices like self-monitoring, deep breathing, and journaling.
Encourages Rational Thinking
It’s common for people with mental health disorders to have little control over their thoughts. Regardless of your condition, you tend to experience cognitive distortions. These are mental biases and filters that make you feel guilty, miserable, or anxious. They can worsen your mental health and have negative effects on your relationship and ability to function.
CBT can help you address irrational thought processes by questioning and analyzing them. Once you start analyzing your distorted beliefs, you realize they’re not based on reason but rather emotion. This gives you greater control over how you think and feel and makes you well-equipped to handle negative thoughts that accompany stressful symptoms.
Conclusion
From depression to anxiety disorders, CBT is a structured and goal-oriented therapeutic approach that can help address a variety of mental health concerns. There are different types of CBT, but the underlying concept is that negative thought patterns drive your unhelpful behaviors. During sessions, you’ll work with your therapist to restructure negative thought patterns and replace them with healthier ones. The benefits of CBT are that it encourages rational thinking, improves coping skills, and builds self-esteem.
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