Cognitive Therapy

11 Pages 2848 Words

Cognitive behavioral therapy helps improve people’s moods and behavior by changing their way thinking; also, how
they interpret events and talk to themselves. This form of psychotherapy helps guide people into thinking more
realistically and teaches them coping strategies to deal with their depression. Cognitive therapy is in most cases a short-
term treatment that can have long-term results. I will discuss depression in adolescence and how it effects personal
adjustments, which may often continue into adulthood. I will also discuss depression in the elderly. There are different
approaches to treating depression, the main approach that will be discussed is cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a
way to break the cycle for depression. What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? Cognitive behavior therapy helps people
break the connections between difficult situations and their habitual reactions to them. This can be reactions such as
fear, rage or depression, and self-defeating or self-damaging behavior. It also teaches people how to calm their mind
and body, so they can feel better, think more clearly, and make better decisions. Cognitive therapy also teaches people
how certain thinking patterns are causing their symptoms. This is accomplished by giving people a distorted picture of
what's going on in their life, and making them feel anxious, depressed or angry for no good reason.(Francis, 2000)
When people are in behavior therapy and cognitive therapy, it provides them with various tools for stopping their
symptoms and getting their life on a more satisfying track. In cognitive therapy, the therapist takes an active part in
solving a patient’s problems. He or she doesn't settle for just nodding wisely while the patient carries the whole burden
of finding the answers they came to therapy for initially. Cognitive therapists teach patients to identify their negative
thoughts, recognize their erroneous nature and devise a co...