Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a common type of therapy often used to treat anxiety disorders as well as depression that may be present in your daily life. According to scientific research studies, cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective in the treatment of depression as antidepressants and psychiatric medications.
An optimal treatment plan for many conditions is often medication in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy, including online therapy. However, this is context-dependent. If a person is living with anxiety and feels that they don't need medication, CBT counseling is a great place for that individual to start and may result in changes over a relatively short period of time.
The focus of CBT treatment is on helping gain insight into your thoughts and thought patterns. Our thoughts can significantly impact our moods, and cognitive behavioral interventions can address negative thinking patterns that may contribute to mental health issues. With the coping techniques of behavior therapy, you have the power to change your feelings as well as any unhelpful behavior.
What is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), like cognitive processing therapy, is a type of psychological therapy that teaches people or a person about distortions and thought patterns. Often, clinical practice client is unaware of these unhealthy patterns of thinking until they learn about how they impact their lives in a negative way, and at that point, they can change the way they think about things through online therapy CBT.
The benefits of CBT include new coping skills, relaxation techniques, stress management, emotional control, and improvement of symptoms from mental health disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can lead to both short-term and long-term benefits for mental health.
What mental health conditions can cognitive behavioral therapy treat?
- panic disorder
- bipolar disorder
- obsessive-compulsive disorder
- post-traumatic stress disorder
- eating disorders
- substance use disorder
- anxiety disorders
- other mental illness
How does CBT therapy work?
In your first session with a CBT-licensed mental health professional, you will learn that CBT works by addressing unhelpful thinking patterns. One of the thinking patterns that CBT aims to manage is distortions. Read further to see if you personally experience some of the following distortions and could benefit from psychological treatment using cognitive therapy:
Filtering
"Black and white" thinking
Overgeneralization
Jumping to conclusions/mind reading
Catastrophizing
Personalization
Control fallacies
Fallacy of fairness
Blaming
It's important to take responsibility and be accountable for your actions. If you feel a certain way, it isn't because of someone else. They could have said something that hurt your feelings, but they didn't "make you feel that way." It's not productive to tell someone "You made me feel bad." What's more productive is to say, "I feel hurt when you say ___." Use your I-statements and you will avoid this distortion.
Should statements
Have you ever heard the saying "stop should-ing all over yourself"? When we say "I should do ___," it induces guilt and shame in us. There is no need to say, "I should be" or "I ought to" because there is no rule book for life. You are free to make your own decisions about what’s best for you, and CBT techniques can help reinforce this.
Emotional reasoning
You feel a certain way; therefore, it must be the truth. Feelings are not the ultimate indicator of what is logically true. You could feel that someone is angry with you, but until you check in with them and ask, you won't know the truth.
Fallacy of change
We believe that we have the power to change other people if we cajole them enough. This isn't true. A person will change, if they want to, on their own time. Just a few sessions with the right therapist can help individuals address this distortion.
Labeling
"I'm a failure," "I'm a bad friend," "I am stupid." These are all examples of labeling. It's unhelpful to call yourself names. You are a human being with a multitude of qualities, but you are not one thing. We all have flaws, but we are not exclusively identified by them.
Always being right
Nobody is right all the time. In fact, there is no right and wrong in a given argument. There are subjectivity and different people's perspectives. You have your opinion and I have mine. We could be looking at the same shade of green and you think it's blue, while I insist that it's green. No one is right in this situation. It's a matter of opinion.
Heaven's reward fallacy
We believe that if we do the right thing in situations throughout life, we will be rewarded somehow in life. This isn't always the truth. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa. There is no one keeping score, and we do the best that we can in our lives.
Benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy
Learning cognitive behavioral therapy techniques during sessions with your therapist in treatment, including cognitive distortions and thought records is extraordinarily helpful for people with anxiety, depression, or eating disorders. CBT is a treatment based solution that provides insight into our emotional challenges and has the capacity to better our lives with the development of coping skills and pathways to healthier thinking.
What to expect from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) sessions
A CBT therapist uses cognitive behavior therapy, and may combine CBT with other treatments like exposure therapy or dialectical behavior therapy, to provide psychological treatment in therapy sessions. The clinical practice of many therapists is used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and an array of other mental health conditions, including emotional symptoms from chronic pain. CBT sessions use clinical psychology-approved cognitive therapy techniques to teach coping mechanisms to people learning to manage a mental illness. Through cognitive behavioral therapy examples, a psychologist may prescribe medications to enhance treatment in rare cases.
Online cognitive behavioral therapy
Being an active participant in your own psychological treatment will ensure that you get the most out of cognitive behavioral therapy. The success of your treatment will depend on how many sessions you attend, and how much you apply yourself.
Benefits of online CBT therapy for mental health
There are many CBT therapists at BetterHelp who can teach you valuable skills in recognizing your own cognitive distortions and how to change them through online therapy sessions. Even if you don’t have health insurance, their talk therapy can be affordable and may help you deal with behavioral responses that impact your mental health. You may opt for short term therapy or for a longer term therapeutic approach; in either case, you can find a healthcare provider to help you gain a better understanding of your emotions, thought distortions, and any particular situation you need assistance with. Below you’ll find some reviews from others who have recently focused on CBT with BetterHelp counselors.
Therapist reviews
“Kelsey is warm, responsive, and flexible in working with her clients' needs. I'm primarily doing cognitive behavioral therapy with her to change some distressing behaviors, and her support and concrete actions have guided me well.”
“Jackie consistently guides and supports my progress, while creatively challenging my cognitive distortions. I feel super fortunate to have Jackie as an intelligent and compassionate counselor who lifts my eyes up and into focus.”