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Misconceptions regarding Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
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You’ve undoubtedly heard of cognitive-behavioral therapy, even if you’ve never tried it. It’s a common kind of treatment that a wide range of therapists use to aid patients with conditions as varied as clinical depression and extreme anxiety. Despite CBT’s popularity, it is often misinterpreted, even by those who work in the field. There are many misconceptions that persist. In what follows, two cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)-focused psychologists set the record straight on some of the most widespread myths.
Misconception: CBT is a rigorous, one-size-fits-all method where a counsellor applies one treatment to every issue.
CBT is not a rigid therapy that fails to take into account the unique needs of each client, despite its standardised procedures for various conditions. In reality, CBT calls for physicians to have an in-depth familiarity with each patient and their specific requirements. Since it’s obvious that everyone has their own unique characteristics. Everyone has a unique background, set of events, characteristics, and variables that keep their symptoms going. Contrary to popular belief, CBT really does allow for subtlety.
“CBT is a collaborative, time-limited,’real-world’ method that demands an awareness of the scientific literature and tremendous creativity,” said Dr. Kevin Chapman, a psychologist.
Chapman, a specialist in anxiety disorders, spends a good portion of each week in unusual places, such as on bridges, highways, and even in caverns. Sometimes he’ll even watch footage of people throwing up or interacting with random customers (for social anxiety). Because of his agoraphobia, he often walks around shopping centres while restrained in a straitjacket (for claustrophobia). To combat his fears, he uses virtual reality (VR) exposure treatment, and to calm his nerves, he drinks a cup of strong coffee on an elevator. When he elaborated, he said, “CBT is refreshing to use and never leads to monotony in my profession.”
Misconception: CBT only entails replacing negative with positive thinking.
It is a common misconception that clients of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) simply learn to think more favourably about their issues and their lives, according to Simon Rego, Psy.D., head psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
CBT, in fact, encourages people to take a more realistic view of their life, as one researcher put it. If their viewpoint is skewed or the issues themselves are unsolvable, as he said, they will need to make adjustments and maybe alter the way they think.
CBT encourages its clients to think in new and creative ways. One of my clients, for instance, struggles with social anxiety and stuttering. It’s common for him to stammer while he’s on stage delivering a speech, which naturally makes him more nervous. Not only is it not helpful (or practical, given the overwhelming evidence that he will stammer), but the thought “I won’t stutter, therefore I shouldn’t be scared” just adds to his anxiety.
The therapist encourages the client to see the situation from many angles, such as the possibility that he will be able to finish the speech even if he stutters and the possibility that the audience will be understanding. Chapman speculated that they may combine forces to deliver a speech in stages. This might include delivering the speech in front of the therapist, delivering it to an audience via virtual reality, delivering it to a panel of three, and so on.
Misconception: Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT) doesn’t consider the existence of the unconscious.
Contrary to Freud’s original idea, the unconscious is not something to be feared in CBT. Rego argued that CBT does take into account the fact that many of our mental processes occur subconsciously. Examples include driving and typing.
According to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), “these thinking processes are not being suppressed” but rather “exist, just below the surface of our consciousness, and are accessible on reflection.” He said that in many CBT therapies, the therapist would assist the patient access and understand ideas that they may not have been consciously aware of before.
Misconception: CBT downplays or dismisses feelings.
“Emotions are of great interest to CBT,” as Rego put it. Basically, CBT is geared on enhancing one’s emotional well-being by providing the means to do so. It does this through examining the links between mental processing and emotional response, as well as between emotional states and behavioural responses.
According to Rego, CBT teaches patients new ways of thinking that may lead to improved emotional well-being. More than that, it aids patients in altering their behaviour, which in turn may alter their emotional state.
Misconception: CBT doesn’t care about the client’s background or upbringing.
The initial step of CBT is to identify the underlying causes of the client’s issue. Rego explained that this is the case by noting that “what begins a problem—things in the past—may be quite different from what maintains a problem—things that the individual today thinks and does…” However, therapists do go into the past when it’s warranted. A therapist working with a client who is experiencing social anxiety could encourage the client to think back on their formative years and the role their family had in developing their anxiety.
There are various reasons why CBT works so well. Evidence of its usefulness comes from a mountain of studies conducted over many years. According to Rego, it has been successfully used with a wide variety of ages and psychological disorders, in both inpatient and outpatient settings, in both individual and group settings, in weekly and daily doses, with and without medication, for both short and long periods of time, and in a number of different countries. According to Chapman, studies have discovered that as people alter their mental and behavioural patterns, their brain chemistry also changes.
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