Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques

Some therapies can be easily recognised by their name and purpose. However, others may seem obscure even when they are the most effective tools in dealing with a variety of mental illness conditions.

Explore cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), how it works, and its effectiveness as a major source of treatment.

What is CBT?

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of talk therapy that has shown promise in treating a variety of mental health conditions such as eating disorders, marital issues, alcohol or drug addiction, as well as depression and anxiety.

CBT can be just as effective as or even more effective than psychiatric drugs or other types of psychological therapy.

CBT is also founded on many fundamental ideas, such as:

• Psychological disorders stem from flawed or harmful and unhelpful thoughts.
• Psychological disorders stem from ingrained, maladaptive behavioral patterns.
• Individuals with psychological disorders can become more effective in their lives and alleviate their symptoms by learning more efficient coping mechanisms.

How Does CBT Work?

The main goal of psychotherapy sessions is to explore and build strategies for managing everyday behaviors and obstacles. One may benefit from CBT when treating bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, phobia and other mental health issues.

CBT typically involves six to twenty one-on-one sessions, though some patients may need more. Group sessions are another possible format. 

CBT can teach techniques that help one examine one’s current ideas and beliefs since it highlights how important it is to recognize, question, and alter one’s perspective of a given circumstance.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) tries to change thought patterns and behavior patterns that obstruct an individual’s desired life path. This entails discovering unfavorable attitudes or misconceptions that influence behavior.

While counselors usually tailor each client’s session specifically, CBT techniques could involve the following:

• an individual evaluation
• setting priorities and goals early on in the process
• assigning homework such as experiments or worksheets after every session
• using summaries and feedback to punctuate conversations

Types of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

ERP, also known as exposure and response prevention, is one of the recognized types of CBT that encourages you to confront your anxieties and allow compulsive ideas to arise without using compulsions to neutralize them.

The first step in exposure treatment is to face anxious objects and circumstances—as long as the anxiety is something you can handle. You’ll notice that after the first few times, your anxiety levels drop and don’t stay as long. After that, you’ll go to exposure exercises that are harder.

ERP therapy is a type of behavioral cognitive therapy that involves exposing patients to scenarios gradually in a safe setting to provoke their obsessions.

ERP techniques will equip patients with coping mechanisms to utilize in the event of a trigger, enabling them to stop their compulsion from taking control.

Obsessions will continue to be difficult when starting ERP, but they won’t appear overpowering. ERP can help people break free from the cycle of addiction and compulsion by helping them build their coping mechanisms.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

The goal of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a type of therapy that teaches patients how to manage strong emotions and navigate social interactions. It was initially created to stop the self-destructive urges of long-term suicidal patients, but it is now the go-to therapy for a wide range of mental illnesses, including emotion dysregulation, borderline personality disorder, and treatment of depression or anxiety. It comprises weekly group classes and individual therapy sessions that last anywhere from six months to a year.

DBT places a special emphasis on imparting therapeutic skills in four important domains.

• By acknowledging the nature of emotions, mindfulness helps people accept and be more present, reducing the influence of emotions on behavior.
• Distress tolerance, or the capacity to bear unpleasant feelings without running away from them or acting in ways that exacerbate challenging circumstances.
• People can control and alter strong emotions that create issues by employing emotion regulation techniques.
• DBT teaches interpersonal effectiveness techniques that enable individuals to speak with others in a way that is respectful of themselves, assertive and builds relationships. 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a type of CBT treatment that emphasizes accepting oneself in order to deal with unfavorable thoughts, feelings, symptoms, or situations. ACT therapy helps promote a stronger commitment to positive, beneficial activities that support one’s objectives or core values. 

You can expect to go through the following stages when you go to an ACT therapy session.

• Building rapport. During your first few sessions, you’ll sit with a therapist and talk about some of your challenges or struggles. You’ll discuss your mental health and talk about things you’ve tried in the past that may or may not have worked.
• Deeper awareness. Your therapist may ask you to identify areas you may have negative thoughts about or hesitate to discuss with others. They can help you work through painful memories while making peace with the things you cannot change.
• Core values. During ACT sessions, you will also be encouraged to explore your core values and identify what’s important to you. How do you want to identify yourself? What do you want your life to look like?
• Action. Your therapist will assist you in making changes once you’ve determined what thoughts come to mind frequently and what you’d like to prioritize. This stage is about accepting the things you cannot change and concentrating on the ones you can.
• Commitment. Following your ACT experience, your therapist will assist you in integrating ACT into your daily routine. Creating a well-thought-out plan will enable you to use the lessons you have learnt in the long run.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

Rational emotive behavior therapy (CBT) assists in recognizing and challenging self-defeating thoughts and feelings and replacing them with more constructive and healthy beliefs. 

REBT focuses primarily on the present. Once you recognize and understand unhealthy patterns, you can change them to build more positive thoughts and relationships in your personal and professional life.

The foundation of REBT is that most individuals aspire to have fulfilling lives. For instance, you most likely want to be happy and accomplish your goals. However, irrational thoughts might occasionally get in the way. These ideas have the power to affect your perception of situations and happenings, usually in a negative way.

Below are the fundamental ideas of REBT, which are also known as the ABCs:

• A is the (a) activating incident or circumstance that creates a negative response or reaction. 
• B stands for any (b) beliefs or illogical ideas about a circumstance or occurrence. 
• C represents the (c) consequences of illogical thoughts or beliefs, frequently unpleasant emotions.

Essential CBT Techniques 

Behavioral Experiments

Behavioral experiments are planned experiential activities used to evaluate a belief’s accuracy. They are among the most effective methods that CBT therapists have at their disposal. Behavioral experiments are a kind of information-collecting exercise where the goal is to determine whether new, more adaptive ideas about oneself, others, and the world are true or whether an individual’s current views are accurate. 

Behavioral experiments are used in cognitive behavioral therapy in a way similar to how other scientific fields utilize them: They are meant to collect data to evaluate theories.

Behavioral experiments can take various forms. For certain people, one could entail completing a survey to learn whether other people share their opinions. For others, it can mean confronting a fear head-on.

Regardless of the kind of behavioral experiment the client is carrying out, the therapist and the client typically work on the following procedure together.

Relaxation and Stress Reduction Techniques

One excellent method for managing stress is to practice deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation techniques. Focusing on the present and certain body parts mitigates the negative impacts of stress on the body and mind. 

You can also manage daily stress by making lifestyle changes, such as prioritizing sleep, eating healthily, and exercising. Additionally, these solutions can help with chronic stress or stress associated with other health issues, including pain and heart disease.

Role Playing

Role-playing is one useful CBT exercise because it gives patients a secure, regulated setting in which to practice new skills.

The following are some ways that role-playing helps in CBT

• Role-playing gives patients a secure and encouraging setting to face their anxieties, pessimistic ideas, and maladaptive habits. It enables patients to get feedback and assistance from their therapist while practicing new abilities in a monitored environment.
• Role-playing might assist patients in recognizing negative thought patterns and actions that can be causing or exacerbating their mental health problems. Patients can better understand their reactions and create methods to counteract negative thoughts and behaviors by role-playing various scenarios.

Successive Approximation

Successive approximation, sometimes referred to as shaping, is also used with CBT. This method is effective for individuals who find it difficult to finish a task because they are unfamiliar with it or feel it is too difficult. 

The method functions by assisting individuals in mastering a simpler activity that is similar to the more challenging task. Every step taken in the direction of the desired behavior is recognized and rewarded in successive increments. 

When a sequence of rewards is offered for distinct behavioral steps, the probability that a behavior will be repeated and that it will result in the achievement of the intended outcome is increased. One behavior becomes easier to handle because you’ve practiced the easier one.

Activity Scheduling and Behavioral Activation

Activity scheduling is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) strategy that helps you engage in activities you would otherwise avoid because of sadness, anxiety, or other difficulties. Its goal is to promote behavioral activation.

It raises the probability that beneficial behaviors—like practicing meditation, taking a walk, or working on a project—will be completed by helping you find and schedule them. This method is particularly beneficial for those who avoid situations because they are anxious or depressed, don’t participate in many enjoyable or fulfilling activities, or struggle to finish things because they put them off or manage their time poorly.

Cognitive Restructuring 

Cognitive distortion is the process of determining, disputing, and altering unreasonable or pessimistic ideas that underlie depressing emotions and useless conduct. During the session, everyone works together to complete this. Cognitive distortions include all-or-nothing thinking (splitting), magical thinking, catastrophizing, rumination, overgeneralization, magnification, black-and-white thinking, and emotional reasoning. Together, we will work to help you recognize and challenge these kinds of illogical or maladaptive thinking.

Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy supports you in facing your anxieties and allowing compulsive thoughts or behaviors to happen without using compulsions to stop them. In this technique, you are allowing yourself to be in settings that cause anxiety or initiate obsessions.

Once the anxiety or obsessions have been triggered, you are gradually exposed to a hierarchy of these situations to help you slowly overcome the feared event. It is done together with relaxation techniques under your therapist’s supervision at the beginning of treatment, and you will eventually learn to perform your own exposure exercises to help manage symptoms.

Guided Discovery

Guided discovery is one of the most helpful strategies in cognitive behavior therapy. It assists clients in thinking critically about how they receive information. By responding to inquiries or offering reflections on thought processes, each client is given access to a variety of alternative ways of thinking. This alternate way of thinking serves as a model for altering attitudes and actions.

One could argue that a client coming to a CBT therapist is mindless at first. This is not to imply that a customer lacks intelligence or mental capacity. Instead, the client is allowed to continue with various involuntary cognitive processes. One of the major goals is to illicit curiosity and discovery within the individual.

Journaling and Thought Records

One CBT therapy technique that helps one manage these negative thoughts is journaling or thought recording. 

It entails jotting down your ideas in a notebook or on paper and examining them closely. By using thought journals, you can interrupt the pattern of automatic thinking, in which you immediately take your thoughts at face value. 

This practice also reduces anxiety because you can distinguish between your feelings and the situation’s facts when you write down your thoughts. You can see through your fear and anxiety with this test and find out what is true. 

It’s possible that your theory was completely unfounded. Even in cases where there is a problem, thought logs can help you choose a more sensible, constructive course of action.

Learn More About CBT With Luxe Recovery

At Luxe Recovery, we use cognitive behavioral therapy to support our patients in leading meaningful, healthy lives. If you or someone you care about is battling any mental health disorder, we can provide you or them with the resources you need to become well. With our highly trained mental health professionals, you will receive individualized, evidence-based intervention based on your needs.