Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

To begin with a cognitive behavioral therapy session, your therapist will ask you to fill out a variety of different forms that assess a range of symptoms and related problems. These forms evaluate depression, anxiety, anger, fears, physical complaints, personality, and relationships. the therapist will also review the various situations and relationships that may cause troubles for you. It is vital to learn the kinds of thoughts and assumptions you may have in different situations, what behaviors you engage in which are rewarding or unpleasant to your and others, and your own way of communicating and listening. The purpose of this evaluation is to gather enough information on you so that you and your therapist can know quickly the kinds of problems you do (or do not) have and the degree of your problem.

The difference between psychodynamic therapies and cognitive therapies lies in the motivational assumptions made by the therapists, and the techniques used to result in a change.  While Psychodynamic theories presume that the maladaptive cognitions arise from specific internal needs or from unsolved developmental issues since childhood, the cognitive therapists see that the maladaptive cognitions arise from wrongly applied social learning, or from a lack of experiences that would allow adaptive learning , from dysfunctional family experiences, or from traumatic events in general. It is the interpretations of the different emotions the patient feels which make a difference, it is not only symptoms. Many people feel depressed after a break up but the interpretation of a break up is what differs from one person to another.For one person a break up means that he cannot be happy, for another it means that he is not loveable, for a third it means he is a failure as he could not keep the relationship and so forth. The patient’s interpretation is the key on which the therapist should depend for his initial target of the therapy.

Some major common cognitive distortions:

• Mind reading:

  You assume you know what people think without having sufficient evidence of their thoughts. "He thinks I'm a loser."

• Fortune telling:

  You predict the future; things will get worse or there is danger ahead. "My child is going to fail the exam" and "he won't get the job."

• Labeling:

  You assign global negative traits to yourself and others. "I’m stupid" or "He's a sneaky person."

• Ignoring positives:

  You claim that the positives you or others attain are trivial: "That's what every husband should do, so it is not something big if he is always caring about me."

• Negative filter:

  You focus almost exclusively on the negatives and seldom notice any positives. "Look at all the people who don't like me."

• Over generalizing:

  You perceive a global pattern of negatives on the basis of a single incident. "This is always the case with me, I don’t seem to understand how work should be done".

• Shoulds:

  to interpret events in terms of how things should be rather than accepting and focusing on how they really are.

• Personalizing:

  You assign an exaggerated amount of blame on yourself for negative happenings and fail to see that certain events are also caused by others. "The relationship ended because I failed."

• Blaming:

  You focus on the other person as the source of your negative feelings, and you refuse to take responsibility for changing yourself and for letting him/her affect you negatively. "My parents caused all my problems."

• Inability to disconfirm:

  You reject any evidence or arguments that might contradict your negative thoughts.

• Judgmental focus:

  You view yourself, others, and events in terms of evaluations of good/­bad or superior/­inferior, rather than simply describing, accepting, or understanding.