Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
What is CBT?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most well-researched and widely used types of psychotherapy. It is a practical, short-term, goal-oriented, evidence-based approach.
Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches people how thoughts and actions influence mood and other aspects of mental and physical health. From this knowledge, effective strategies for overcoming everyday challenges are taught.
CBT is very flexible and can benefit people with a wide variety of mental disorders, and even help people with good mental health better manage stress to improve work, interpersonal relationships, diet, sleep and overall resilience.
Combining Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy
CBT grew out of the combination of two different types of therapy: cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy.
Cognitive therapy focuses on how thoughts and beliefs contribute to negative feelings and behaviors. Patients learn to evaluate their thinking patterns and modify unhelpful thoughts and ways of thinking.
Behavioral therapy looks at how certain behavior patterns started. It also explores how to change or break these patterns to improve mood. It includes techniques such as exposure therapy, role-playing and behavioral activation.
Combining these two approaches leads to a robust, goal-oriented treatment strategy. The focus is on practical strategies you can use today, tomorrow, and every day. These strategies help improve your feelings, relationships and daily functioning.
The number of therapy sessions may be decided during the initial treatment planning. Both the therapist and patient agree on a plan although flexibility is built in to change the number of sessions depending on client needs, schedules and just how quickly the client and therapist move through the skills. In addition, patients work on practicing the strategies between sessions. Research shows that clients who do “homework” as part of CBT improve more quickly.
By the end of treatment, patients have built a useful toolkit. This toolkit can help reduce or prevent problems from coming back.
With the incorporation of the practice and philosophy of mindfulness, cognitive-behavioral therapy has acquired additional approaches to enhance its flexibility and effectiveness.
When CBT is Effective
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a highly flexible and adaptable evidence-based type of talk therapy, which makes it effective in treating a wide range of mental health conditions, including:
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Anxiety disorders respond well to CBT’s focus on thoughts and behaviors. By identifying automatic thought patterns that lead to a sense of danger, CBT helps people experience fewer and less severe symptoms of dread, anxiety, and panic, and avoid being controlled by their fear.
Anxiety disorders also respond well to the behavior strategies that are part of CBT such as relaxation training. Anxiety is an activation of the body's stress response so learning how to calm and relax the body through breathing and other techniques is an essential aspect of CBT for anxiety.
Some of the anxiety disorders treated at CBT Denver include agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, health anxiety, public speaking anxiety and specific phobias. -
Eating disorders, substance abuse disorders, and impulse disorders can be improved by identifying the thoughts and emotions that cause people to turn to food, substance abuse, or impulsive actions to help them cope.
CBT gives patients skills that allow them to identify situations that would trigger consumption or indulgence in impulsive actions, and use other, healthier methods of coping.
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These include diagnoses such as depression, bipolar disorder, dysthymia, and seasonal affective disorder.
Cognitive behavior therapy teaches people struggling with mood disorders to identify thought patterns that contribute to mood problems and counter them by seeing their environment in a more realistic and generally less negative way.Positive feelings are encouraged by engaging in activities that their disorder might otherwise cause them to withdraw from and allow for greater experiences of joy, humor and pleasure.
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Sleep problems such as insomnia often result from unhealthy management of stress or come as a side effect of certain behaviors that lead to poor sleep hygiene.
By identifying the stressors or behaviors that underlie specific problems, patients learn to deal with them in a more beneficial way to achieve better sleep.
CBT-I is a non-medication approach that focuses on the thoughts and behaviors that contribute to poor sleep and a treatment that provides clients with proven strategies to help them prevent and overcome sleep problems. -
CBT can even help manage non-psychological issues such as chronic pain, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and chronic fatigue syndrome, among others.
Therapists at CBT Denver have specific expertise in CBT for these difficulties.
The Process
CBT is typically structured and tailored to the individual’s needs. Here’s a breakdown of the CBT process:
Assessment and goal setting: At the start of the treatment, the patient and the therapist talk about the difficulties the person is having. Together, they establish clear, quantifiable therapeutic objectives.
Pattern recognition: The therapist works with the patient to identify automatic thoughts, attitudes, and actions that lead to psychological issues through journaling, assignments, and discussions.
Challenging negative thought patterns: After the patient recognizes these tendencies, the therapist collaborates with them to confront and transform harmful ideas into more realistic, well-rounded perspectives.
Developing coping skills: As part of the therapy sessions, individuals are taught a range of skills that they can use on a regular basis. These include skills for managing stress, problem-solving and relaxation techniques.
Ongoing practice: Patients are encouraged to practice the skills learned in therapy in their daily lives. This hands-on approach helps solidify new ways of thinking and behaving.
Effectiveness of CBT
Hundreds of studies on CBT have suggested that cognitive behavioral therapy can be as beneficial, if not more so, than psychiatric medications for a wide range of mental health conditions.
These studies also highlight the long-lasting effects that CBT has because of its focus on establishing self-help tools. This means that people often use CBT methods even after finishing therapy. This helps them avoid relapse and maintain their mental health improvements.
In fact, because of its success in both individual and group settings, CBT has become one of the most widely used forms of therapy in the world, both in short and long term. It works especially well when combined with medication to treat illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Is online CBT effective?
Research shows that teletherapy is an effective modality that will allow you to get the support you need while in the comfort of your own house. Online cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective as the therapy offered in person.
We are able to provide services to clients seeking services within the entire state of Colorado as well as all states participating in PsyPACT, so we can hold sessions with clients who live outside of Denver and in other states.
What is MBCT
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) combines the strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with mindfulness practices. These practices include meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises.
The goal is to help people notice their thoughts and feelings as they happen. This way, they can experience these emotions without being controlled by them. These strategies help people avoid the consequences of automatic thoughts that lead to negative emotions and actions.
Why Choose CBT Denver?
Our team at CBT Denver specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, as well as a variety of other effective therapeutic approaches. Our CBT therapists help people overcome their challenges by offering individualized therapy programs tailored to each patient's specific requirements.
We are here to support you whether you are coping with a particular mental health issue or you simply want to enhance your emotional health.
For more information about working with our CBT Denver experts in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and many other types of therapy, please contact us.
Contact us
Learn More About our Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Services at CBT Denver
If you wish to know more about our approach to CBT, don’t hesitate to reach out. We can help you decide what might be best for you through an initial phone consultation and answer any questions you have.