Disadvantage of cognitive behavioral therapy


15 Pros and Cons of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – ConnectUS

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) provides a combination of behavioral and talk therapy to help individuals reframe their negative thinking patterns. The goal of CBT is to help turn those negative patterns into positive thoughts. When this shift in perspective is achieved, then positive behaviors and actions express themselves during difficult moments or choices in that person’s life.

Several issues affect people each day, from loneliness to anxiety to depression. Each person seeks comfort during these times in their own way. Some choices may lead to destructive behaviors, while others, like an eating disorder, may trigger long-term health concerns if left unresolved.

During a CBT session, a patient works with their therapist to find the source of their negative thinking. Then they work to change that perspective toward a growth-based mindset. With enough time, many patients can find coping mechanisms which are healthy, allowing them to identify the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors which hold them back.

These are the significant pros and cons of cognitive behavioral therapy to review.

List of the Pros of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

1. It is as effective as medication to treat some mental health disorders.
About 7% of adults in the United States suffer from a major depressive disorder each year. The symptoms of this health issue include a loss of interest in things previously enjoyed, lower energy levels, physical disease development, and isolation. Severe issues with major depressive disorders can become life-threatening if not treated. When CBD is followed, the negative thought patterns are reconstructed, which can help to relieve moderate cases when under the care of a professional just as effectively as medication does.

2. CBT does not take much time to complete compared to other forms of talking therapy.
Patients who undergo cognitive behavioral therapy will usually meet for an individual session which lasts for 30 minutes, going up to 60 minutes, depending on the issues involved. You’d meet with your therapist about once per week or once every other week, depending on the situation involved. People who receive exposure therapy usually have more extended sessions.

Most CBT series last for 20 weeks or less. Some patients finish with their cognitive behavioral therapy in just five weeks. Compared to other talkative therapies which can last for years, or be an ongoing treatment service, CBT allows you to experience results right away.

3. The focus of CBT takes on different formats, depending on the issues presenting themselves.
Problems are broken into five primary areas within cognitive behavioral therapy: situations, thoughts, emotions, physical feelings, and actions. The goal of the sessions is to show patients that these sections are interconnected with one another in the brain. If you face a difficult situation, then you have a thought generated from it. That thought leads to an emotion. The emotion leads to a physical expression of those feelings. Then the expressions lead toward decisions or actions.

CBT creates opportunities to take on different formats of expression based on where the errors occur in a person’s life. Exposure therapy deals with phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Patients can identify negative thought cycles. Whatever your current problems are, you’ll look at how you thought and acted in the past to change what you’d do in the future.

4. Different therapy session types and tools are available through CBT.
Talkative therapy is the most common way to begin engaging with cognitive behavioral therapy. There are multiple tools available for patients to use when working to restructure their thinking patterns too. You can read books that discuss the issues which you feel are most important to your current needs. There are group sessions used sometimes to help you see that you’re not alone. Videos, computer programs, and even road trips are sometimes included as therapy options. That’s because the goal is to help you work in ways that feel natural and comfortable to you.

5. The skills learned through each CBT session offer useful real-world skills.
When you’re working with a cognitive behavioral therapy counselor, what you are doing is skill-based practice. You are identifying coping strategies which can be used in any situation you find yourself. By finding ways to cope with anxiety and stress, the impacts which it makes become less influential on your life. You become more resilient because of that action, creating positive cycles which promote progress toward a solution.

This identification of coping skill mechanisms makes it possible for you to deal with chronic self-negativity, high-stress environments, or challenging situations because you understand the bigger picture through CBT. You’re no longer trapped in the acute thoughts, feelings, and behaviors which get triggered by the negative stimuli.

6. CBT is a collaborative effort.
When going through cognitive behavioral therapy, your therapist isn’t going to tell you what to do. They work with you instead to find a solution to the difficulties you face at the moment. That means you identify issues on a personal level, then invest in yourself to make the changes which are necessary. It is this process which becomes helpful when reacting to different situations.

Because CBT is a collaborative effort, there is more accountability to the process. When you have a partner, you’re vastly more likely to find success.

7. Medication can work with cognitive behavioral therapy.
CBT isn’t a treatment option which must be used by itself. Many doctors recommend cognitive behavioral therapy when medication alone isn’t working. Some people suffer from more than a chemical imbalance with their mental health concerns. Their thinking patterns become negative through outside stimuli, including their home environment, which no meds can touch. The success rate of medication and CBT is very high in several demographics, providing a realistic path of hope to overcome this obstacle for many.

8. CBT is useful for almost any age group.
Children and adults benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy when correctly used. The expectations are the same in any age group. As long as there is a capacity and will to create changes in one’s life, then CBT offers a solution which can treat the problems which exist. Even taking the time to talk about a situation is enough to provide some results because many people keep difficult situations internalized, making them fester because they don’t share their concerns with others.

CBT is a way to create trust in others and oneself while working to break negative cycles and their destructive influences in life. The probability of completing a goal when you’re accountable to someone for it is 95%. If you only hear of cognitive behavioral therapy and that’s as far as the treatment idea goes, then your probability of success drops to just 10%.

List of the Cons of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

1. Cognitive behavioral therapy relies on the will of the patient.
Each person must be invested in themselves for cognitive behavioral therapy to work. During the therapy session, you’ll be asked about what you hope to gain from the work you’re doing. You must review the urges, triggers, and stressors which cause you discomfort. The therapist will listen to your concerns, but it is up to you to put in the work that must be done to create change.

If you’re unwilling to put together a plan or work on homework for the next session, then the results of your CBT experience will become limited. Everyone participating in cognitive behavioral therapy must fully cooperate with the process to produce results.

2. It takes a lot of time to complete CBT with the extra work between sessions.
Homework is arguably the most crucial element of cognitive behavioral therapy. The assignments you’ll complete during your time in CBT come from a development between yourself and the therapist helping you. Most of the work requirements involve the rehearsal of new skills first practiced during a therapy session. Coping strategies are developed and practiced too, along with time spent in the restructuring of destructive belief systems.

Expect to spend at least 1-2 hours per day working on these therapeutic elements. Some patients may need to double their time commitment. Each session requires completed assignments to be the most useful, which means most of your free time could be taken by your cognitive behavioral therapy responsibilities.

3. CBT is not useful for individuals with specific learning difficulties.
Experiential therapy is the primary format which cognitive behavioral therapy uses to treat individuals with specific learning difficulties. By taking a hands-on approach, the cognitive challenges faced by the person involved are overcome through the element of actual practice. This approach doesn’t work for everyone, however, because it relies on an environment perceived to be safe by the individual. There are some learning difficulties which eliminate all safe environments, limiting the effects CBT creates.

4. People with complex mental health needs may not benefit from CBT either.
Cognitive behavioral therapy works to restructure issues like anxiety by changing how thoughts are processed. With complex phobias or mental health concerns, CBT isn’t useful because there are specific elements of risk which always apply sometimes.

Take someone who fears flying as an example. Someone is statistically safer flying than driving, yet if a plane drops from 30,000 feet and crashes, you’re 100% dead. Some people walk away from high-speed head-on collisions. You might be statistically safer in a plane, but if an incident occurs, the individual with the phobia would say they’re statistically safer in the automobile. Being cognitive about thoughts is not always a guarantee that improvements are made.

5. Cognitive behavior therapy often makes people feel worse before they feel better.
CBT requires individuals to confront the issues which create difficult feelings for them. During the initial sessions and homework completed by the patient, the initial confrontation of fear, anxiety, or other issues creates a surge in negative thoughts and feelings. It is not unusual for physical actions to become worse too. Someone who struggles with loneliness and copes by eating might find themselves regularly checking the fridge for a snack during this phase.

The results of cognitive behavioral therapy begin to show themselves after the first couple of sessions and the related homework. If someone decides to give up during the initial phase when symptoms are often worse, it could place the patient in a position which is even more vulnerable than before.

6. CBT addresses current issues only instead of addressing some underlying causes.
The goal of cognitive behavioral therapy is to address issues which face an individual right now. That perspective seeks to break the patient out of their negative thinking cycles, restructuring their thoughts toward something more positive. There are times, however, when chronic issues create negative cycles and CBT doesn’t always address the issue.

Take a childhood filled with constant travel and movement. Then a parent leaves the family at a young age, trapping the patient in a cycle of poverty until their teen years. Now they struggle with obsessive-compulsive issues because everything holds value to them. They cannot let things go because they are emotionally attached to each item. Addressing the attachment through cognitive behavioral therapy won’t change how the individual copes with the parent who left them, which could be the core issue driving the negative cycles in the first place.

7. It focuses on the individual capacity to change.
People must be willing to change for cognitive behavioral therapy to work correctly. There must also be an individual capacity to change for CBT to offer useful results. If someone is told to use a computer program as part of their therapy, but they don’t have access to that technology, then it won’t be a practical pursuit. The tools recommended for homework, group sessions, or 1-on-1 therapy must offer availability to the patient for thought restructuring to take place. Nothing happens without this access.

The pros and cons of cognitive behavioral therapy work to find helpful ways to react to situations instead of relying on unhelpful methods. Instead of accepting that you are a failure because of what happens to you, trapped in a negative cycle, CBT encourages you to look for a positive future. It makes your problems more manageable, even if there are situations when it may not be the correct therapeutic option to choose.

Author Bio
Natalie Regoli is a child of God, devoted wife, and mother of two boys. She has a Master's Degree in Law from The University of Texas. Natalie has been published in several national journals and has been practicing law for 18 years.

The 6 Limitations of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been increasingly popular over the last few decades.

It’s an effective treatment for a wide variety of conditions like PTSD, insomnia, panic disorders, anxiety disorders, and more.

However, CBT is not a miracle treatment, and there are certainly limitations to it. It’s important to understand them to know when an alternative or complementary treatment should be considered instead.

Table of Contents

  1. CBT Doesn’t Fully Fix All Problems
  2. CBT Doesn’t Work for All Psychiatric Conditions
  3. CBT is More Time Consuming Than Alternative Treatments
  4. CBT Relies on Patients to Be Effective
  5. CBT is Not Always Easily Available
  6. The Effectiveness of CBT Depends on The Therapist
  7. Summary: The Limitations of CBT

CBT Doesn’t Fully Fix All Problems

Many studies investigating the use of CBT don’t use well-constructed control groups. When they do, the effectiveness is still usually good, but not as impressive.

For example, in a study on using CBT for panic the treatment group findings were impressive (1):

85% of patients are panic-free at posttreatment and improvements are maintained at follow-up

However, this study did have a good control group of waiting list subjects, which found that 26% of the control group also improved to an acceptable degree.

Therefore, while CBT was certainly effective, it wasn’t exactly 85% effective.

In addition, other studies have shown that CBT often fixes the worst symptoms, but not all of them. In a study on CBT for insomnia, many subjects who improved did not become “good” sleepers (2). It was certainly a worthwhile treatment, but clearly CBT alone in this context was not enough alone to fully cure a patient.

Finally, there are some studies that show that CBT may not be more effective than alternative treatments. For a condition like depression, alternatives like interpersonal therapy or clinical management plus antidepressants may be more effective (3).

CBT Doesn’t Work for All Psychiatric Conditions

CBT is often prescribed for insomnia, but little research has been done on exactly how effective it is on different types of insomnia.

In other words, CBT is typically studied for chronic insomnia, not not acute cases. In addition, insomnia can be caused by a wide variety of comorbidities, which are unlikely to respond equally well to CBT.

The same can be said for any other condition treated by CBT. Different types of PTSD or depression may need tailored intervention.

CBT is More Time Consuming Than Alternative Treatments

A typical CBT regiment initially consists of 5-8 weekly sessions.

While that’s not a terrible time frame, there are a few obvious limitations with it compared to other treatments like medication:

  • Results don’t occur immediately (typically anywhere from a few weeks to months to see significant improvements)
  • The sessions themselves take 30-60 minutes, plus travel time

This is a significant time and resource commitment for a patient. And while CBT can be done at the same time as many other treatments, they aren’t always prescribed together in order to determine which treatment is actually working.

CBT Relies on Patients to Be Effective

With most medications, a patient is simply asked to take a pill on a regular basis, and getting compliance for that can still be difficult.

For CBT, patients not only need to spend more time on the treatment itself, but they also have to be willing to put in the effort. They need to open with their therapist, and need to do any “homework” that’s needed on top of the sessions.

When you’re dealing with patients that have depression, you can’t always expect to get that level of commitment.

CBT is Not Always Easily Available

You’re unlikely to find therapists that specialize in CBT in most small towns. In addition, the cost of CBT can often be another obstacle. 

Luckily, treatment is often covered by insurance, and there are more budget-friendly options for CBT (e. g. online or group therapy) that have been proven to be almost as effective in most cases.

However, these alternatives also have limitations of their own, and not every patient will be okay with them.

The Effectiveness of CBT Depends on The Therapist

Like any counseling, the results will at least partly depend on the therapist.

There’s always going to be variable in therapist quality, with some being great, and others being poor.

This variable is removed with many other treatment options (i.e. medication is the same for everyone as long as quality standards are met).

Summary: The Limitations of CBT

CBT is an absolutely great treatment method for a wide variety of conditions.

However, the limitations we’ve discussed show that:

  • CBT is often enough by itself for a full cure
  • There are multiple accessibility concerns
  • Other treatment methods may be just as effective, or even more effective than CBT

References

  1. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Panic: Effectiveness and Limitations
  2. Contributions of cognitive-behavioral approaches to the clinical management of insomnia
  3. All you need is cognitive behaviour therapy?

Medical Disclaimer: The information on SnoozeUniversity. com is not intended to be a substitute for physician or other qualified care. We simply aim to inform people struggling with sleep issues about the nature of their condition and/or prescribed treatment.


About the authorDale is the founder of Snooze University and a sleep researcher. I overcame my sleep issues and now I'd like to help you do the same by summarizing the latest sleep studies for you.

What You Need to Know About Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - HEROINE

If you care about headlines about anxiety, self-care, coping with fears, and stress, you've probably seen the advice to see a therapist for these issues. Most often, it is cognitive behavioral therapy that is recommended, which can save you from most of the problems and anxieties in the present. Heroine has compiled a few facts worth knowing for anyone who has been thinking about consulting a specialist for a long time, but cannot figure out what distinguishes CBT from other therapies.

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the many treatments used in psychotherapy. It is based on the fact that many of life's problems come from erroneous thoughts and the behavior they cause. By changing our thoughts and focusing on productive goals, we can reduce our worries. In practice, this is a session of identifying problematic thoughts and replacing them with healthy reactions.

Let's say that Marina may feel uncomfortable around crowds, so she starts avoiding her friends and staying at home more often. The therapist can explain to her how fear arises in her body, teach her how to remain calm in uncomfortable situations, and help develop a plan of action for behavior in an unfamiliar environment. After another session, Marina and the psychologist will have the opportunity to evaluate what worked and what did not, and so on until the girl begins to feel confident.

Who is CBT suitable for?

Cognitive therapists offer a wide range of services, such as phobias, anxiety, depression, PTSD, self-esteem problems, and even relationship conflicts. If it is a thought and behavior problem, cognitive behavioral therapy may help.

To see if CBT will help you, ask yourself a few questions:

  • Are you now worried about your former relationship?
  • Does it bother you that your partner seems to be moving away?
  • Do you not know how to control your financial flows and constantly spend more than planned?
  • Are you afraid of your supervisor?

Solutions to such situations are easily found in a few sessions. However, if you are concerned about issues related to your childhood or what happened many years ago, CBT may not be the best choice of therapeutic method.

Why is CBT so popular?

One of the reasons CBT is so widespread is that it has been studied far more than any other area of ​​psychology. It is aimed at short and focused changes, which means that it is not so difficult to measure it. With CBT, you can see results much faster – from three weeks to two months.

How does a CBT session work?

Since CBT is a form of psychotherapy, all first sessions will not differ from other methods. Together with the specialist, you will discuss the schedule of appointments, the policy of cancellations and rescheduled sessions, your goals for therapy, important information in the past, and what problems you face on a regular basis. Over the course of several sessions, you will need to formulate together the most effective method for changing the current situation. You will identify problematic thoughts and habits, and then find a way to change them, as well as create an environment in which you can practice them.

It is important to understand that CBT focuses on what is happening right here and now, not where your problem came from. Maybe you want to know about your genetic tendencies to anxiety or analyze situations that have been in the past - but for these answers you should turn to other methods of psychotherapy.

A simple example: you are now afraid of dogs. Every time you see a shepherd dog, you want to run away without looking back, because you are sure that all shepherd dogs are very dangerous animals. Perhaps it happened because you were bitten by a dog as a child, but knowing this fact does not help you get rid of fear in any way.

The plan that you and your therapist develop is usually considered “homework” that cannot be abandoned.

What is “homework” in CBT?

Typically, a CBT course consists of 8-12 sessions, during which the symptoms will begin to decrease significantly, so that most of the work will be done outside the session.

A typical homework in this method might include working on relaxation, keeping a diary of thoughts and emotions, completing checklists, reading a book on your problem.

Let's assume that the client Nastya is having a constant internal conversation - scolding herself for making ridiculous mistakes in her work and at the same time scolding herself for being so unkind to herself. With the help of a therapist, she can learn to break this cycle of negative thoughts into something more positive: a hobby or even a meditation app.

Homework should be done at least once a week, between sessions. This is extremely important, because if you don't start practicing new behavioral strategies to deal with anxiety, you will forget to use them in emergency situations. This is very similar to the process of developing new healthy habits - if you want to start exercising regularly, the first thing to do is to fit a workout into your schedule at least twice a week. At first it will be difficult, but the more attentive you are to the task, the faster the sport will become part of your everyday life.

How long is CBT used?

This therapy aims to eliminate symptoms as quickly as possible, from a few weeks to a few months. Of course, people rarely have only one problem to work on in therapy, but most often they try to divide them into several courses with a wide break.

Other therapies spend a lot of time trying to unearth the causes of the client's condition - where did your depression, low self-esteem and other problems come from. Some people want to reduce their symptoms, others want to know why they appeared in the first place - to each his own.

What can I take from ITC if I don't want to attend?

Have you ever kept trackers of good habits? Tracked how much water you consume and how much you ate, depending on the workload of the day? Then you are already applying the methods of CBT in your daily life.

Most of the popular self-care apps work on this approach. If you consider your problems a little more serious, then you definitely should not refuse to take a full-fledged course.

What are the disadvantages of CBT?

Some clients of psychotherapists want to explore their memories, dreams, and early relationships under the guidance of a therapist. Perhaps, for such people, CBT is not the best choice, because it involves working only on what is happening right now.

By the way, this is why some psychologists consider the method superficial, because they think that one should always pay attention to the roots of problems. To find out whether this is so or not, everyone has to experience.

What should a CBT psychotherapist be like?

There are several important things to look out for when choosing a specialist:

  • Sessions should be structured. You must first check your "homework", then learn new information and skills, and only then create new homework that must be completed by the next session.
  • CBT - joint work. No one will give you a clear guide to action and detailed instructions on what you need to change in order to heal better. You will develop a work plan together with the therapist, and your investment in this process may be approximately equal.
  • Therapy is clearly limited in time. It should not become a lifelong process for you - at some point in time you will learn to be your own therapist. As soon as you learn new skills and notice positive changes in your life, this will be a good reason to stop the sessions and take control of your anxiety.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - what it is: features of psychotherapy, pros and cons, the essence, who is suitable for

  1. Cognitive behavioral therapy: the essence of the approach
  2. How does behavior therapy work?
  3. What problems is CPT suitable for
  4. What to expect at the consultation?
  5. What tasks can a psychologist give
  6. Pros and Cons of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  7. Who is this format suitable for?

Many of us imagine a psychologist as a specialist who understands everything and accepts everything, ready to provide support, sympathize, console. However, in fact, this approach does not work for all psychologists - and not at all because they are bad specialists. For example, those who adhere to cognitive behavioral therapy do not focus on support. What are its features, how do psychologists in this area work, who will CBT help, who will it suit and what to expect at a meeting? The answers to all these questions are in our article.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: The Essence of the Approach

CBT originates from researchers studying reflexes and behavioral responses, from Pavlov's dogs and experiments with Skinner's mazes. Specialists of this school perceive a person as a set of environmental stimuli and reactions to them . In simple terms, our behavior for them is the result of learning . It is not only about upbringing in the family, but also about the influence that the whole environment had : school, neighbors, friends, etc. - all who participate in the formation of our idea of ​​reality. Behavior that receives "reinforcement" is fixed for many years and becomes part of our personality.

For example, a little girl asks her mother to buy her another doll. Mom refuses (trying to appeal to rational arguments) - she says that the girl “has so many dolls”, that “now there is no money”, that she will “give a doll for her birthday” ... What does the child do? Starts to cry. The mother's heart breaks down and she buys a doll. This happens several times (sometimes with dad, then with grandma). So the reaction received the necessary reinforcement and will now become part of the girl's behavior. And when she becomes an adult and asks her husband to buy her a new dress, when she is refused, what do you think she does? Of course she cries. And if the husband continues to persist, she becomes disappointed in him, says that he does not love her, and their relationship has come to a standstill.

Of course, this example is greatly simplified for better understanding. However, cognitive-behavioral therapists-psychologists perceive a person and his behavior in exactly this way.


How does behavioral therapy work?

CBT psychologists are convinced that any problem of a person is the result of his behavior . That is, we ourselves create difficulties by virtue of how we have learned to respond to the outside world. And here we come to the main concept: cognitive dissonance . This is a state when one of our reactions previously received reinforcement and gave a result, but from some moment it began to fail. And we can't get what we want. A simplified version is well demonstrated by the following experiment.

Imagine that a laboratory rat is placed in a cage with a pedal that, when pressed, gives the animal food. The rat gets used to the fact that, at her request, she will always receive food. And once the pedal function is turned off. The rat presses on it in hope for a while, without even receiving reinforcements. So a person continues to do the same things day after day and is very upset that nothing works out. Falls into a "stupor" and brings himself to despair.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy allows to find similar impulses, motivations, distortions, ideas, realize them (transfer to a conscious level) and, accordingly, change .

What problems can CBT solve? As you understand, this is

everything related to our behavior . Including:

  • Family problems . At the same time, it is not necessary to come to consultations as a couple: a change in the behavior of one of the partners often changes the entire system of relationships.
  • Difficulties in other relationships in communication and interaction with other people, etc.
  • All range of psychosomatic disorders - allergic reactions caused by psychosomatics, hypertension, gastrointestinal diseases, etc.
  • Addictions - both alcoholism and drug addiction, and, for example, overweight problems.
  • Anxiety, fears, panic attacks .
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorders .
  • Depression, post-traumatic disorder .

What to expect at the consultation?

Cognitive behavioral specialist will not be affectionate and attentive at the meeting. To many, they even seem rude or boorish. But it's not that they are bad psychologists - they just have a different purpose. “Treatment” does not come at the expense of support and love for the client, but by looking for the very reactions that create a specific problem.

CBT specialists, like detectives, try to understand the intricacies of our behavior, patterns and causal relationships, in search of those very previously fixed behavioral stereotypes. They need to understand which specifically need to be acted upon to get the result . And when they find such attitudes, their task is to “retrain” the client and reinforce the new behavior so that it also receives reinforcements from the outside world.

CBT psychologists give specific recommendations on what to do and how to do it , and this often causes misunderstanding on the part of clients. However, the method of work is based on the fact that the psychologist gives recommendations, and your task is to follow them exactly, even if you do not believe in them. In fact, they will give a very strong result.

It is not easy to relearn, so a system of homework is often used, sometimes in a very creative way, by doing which, you imperceptibly begin to behave differently. It is important not to argue here, but simply trust the specialist and do as he said.

Because of this approach, there is an opinion about the “rudeness” of CBT psychotherapists. In fact, they are more than other specialists aimed at your result. Having received and reinforced the new behavior, the problem that you address to them goes away, as if by itself.

What tasks can a psychologist give

In fact, homework is always individual . The specialist has to select the tools for a particular case each time. Although there are techniques that are used more often than others and you can talk about them without violating the therapeutic secret.

For example, a person has compulsive actions, say, when he is nervous, he bites his nails. The therapist will give him the task of biting his nails every day from 19:02 to 19:18 for a week. The client will do this by mothering the therapist in every possible way. What do you think happens to the habit? The person rebels against the therapist, his reactions are rearranged, and he stops doing it.

Or another example. A woman complains that her husband does not pay attention to her. The psychologist analyzes in detail what it means to “pay attention”, and brings to a specific situation, for example, “romantic evening”. She describes in detail what the evening should be like. The task for her is to organize this evening for her husband. As a rule, such clients strongly resist. But in a strange way for her, after this evening, her husband suddenly begins to notice her and pay attention to her.

Pros and cons of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy

It is an indisputable fact that this approach is one of the fastest and most effective among all psychological schools. A cognitive-behavioral therapist is focused on a specific result, is collected and makes clients think, and not drown in an abyss of feelings and emotions.

The main disadvantage is that if you are in an emotionally unstable state, in a situation of stress or a deep crisis, this approach is for you may seem too hard . You may think that the psychologist is just mocking you and does not want to show attention and sympathy. Therefore, when going to a specialist, try to assess what you need now - support and participation or a tough attitude to action .

It is also not uncommon for people to start arguing with the therapist, criticizing every recommendation.


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