Cognitive psychotherapy

Everyone is exposed to stress - in the office, at home, in the store and on the road. Ways to cope with the experiences, too, are all different - who pounding a pear in the gym, who is crying for a glass of wine to a friend, and someone closes in himself, not letting out emotions. Such people often become clients of psychotherapists, because they can not cope with stresses and their consequences alone. To help people resolve existing contradictions, various methods are used, and one of the most interesting, combining the principles of different schools is cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.

Fundamentals of the method

The approach was invented by Aaron Beck, who suggested that many personality problems arise as a result of incorrect self-knowledge and based on this negative emotions. For example, a person believes that he is unable to do anything well and misses all his thoughts and actions through the prism of this belief, and therefore life is perceived as an endless series of suffering. Using cognitive-oriented psychotherapy, a specialist can find out the reason for this self-awareness and help to revise the attitude toward oneself. The result of the work will be the ability to objectively evaluate yourself, avoiding "automatic" negative thoughts. Rapid efficacy and a wide range of tools have made the cognitive approach prevalent in the psychotherapy of depression . Over time, it became clear that the cognition (fantasy and thought) of a person can be not only the cause of depression, but also more serious personal problems, which made the approach applicable for their treatment.

Cognitive psychotherapy of personality disorders

Despite the effectiveness of the techniques developed for the treatment of depression, they were not suitable for working with more severe conditions. Therefore, for the purpose of cognitive psychotherapy of personality disorders, other methods have been created, and for each specific disease there is a set of tools. For example, in case of treatment of alcoholism, drug addiction and other addictions, the person's thoughts regarding his attachment are corrected and reoriented to ways of obtaining pleasure in more natural ways - creating a family, building a career, buying a home, restoring health, etc. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder will require the use of Jeffrey Schwartz's "4 Steps" technique, which will allow to detect obsessive thoughts, understand their cause and reconsider their views on themselves. Also, the approach makes it possible to work effectively with borderline disorders and schizophrenia. But cognitive-analytical psychotherapy is not omnipotent and in severe disorders it does not replace medical treatment, but complements it.