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Healthinmind/Getting
Services/Types of Treatment/Psychotherapies
Cognitive
Therapy
One of the more successful individual
therapies is cognitive therapy, which is even more effective when
combined with behavioral therapy. The
basic tenet of cognitive therapy is that how you feel and what
you do is related to what you think. Therefore, this therapy
attempts to identify maladaptive thought patterns and change them (cognitive
shift), which then results in changes in mood and behavior.
In the process, the therapist and client, as a team, work to
identify core beliefs, which lead to maladaptive thoughts.
The therapist, throughout this process, challenges the client's
conclusions regarding events, interactions, etc. The client is
constantly encouraged to re-interpret the situations and to decide
whether these re-interpretations better reflect what actually
happened. In this process, the sets of beliefs of clients are
changed and become more adaptive.
Cognitive and
Cognitive-Behavioral therapies have been extensively studied and found
to be effective for a variety of disorders. Most
recent findings suggest that a combination of these types of
therapies
with medication is much better than either of the two alone for the
treatment of depression. Cognitive therapy can be effectively
used to treat depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder,
eating disorders, suicidal behaviors, etc.
Related web sites:
Visit Habit
Smart to learn more about cognitive therapy.
Read a study
comparing psychotherapy to medication therapy for depression.
Last updated 12/19/03
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