Cognitive psychotherapy

Cognitive psychotherapy is one of the most popular and successful methods, the basis of which is to facilitate the adaptation of the client - both social and personal - by changing personal beliefs that impede this adaptation. Undoubtedly, the use of this psychotherapeutic method requires considerable work from the doctor, but it brings success almost always.

Cognitive psychotherapy was invented in the early 20th century by Aron Beck. This person believed that many of the client's psychological problems can arise from the fact that he is building wrong conclusions that distort the true picture of the world. The reason for this - the so-called "automatic thoughts" - the thoughts that a person has when assessing the experience of the situation. And they can cause inadequate behavior.

As a result of these "automatic thoughts", many people can form incorrect stereotypes. The greatest probability of their formation in childhood, and it is their most difficult to destroy.

The goal pursued by cognitive psychotherapy is to help get rid of stereotypes, to learn the correct analysis of the situation, to determine your own interpretation of various situations and its causes.

Psychologists who use the cognitive approach, have a long time to study the patient, because to help him get rid of wrong beliefs, you need to understand how this person thinks, why and how he developed such beliefs.

To better understand the essence of cognitive psychotherapy, it is advisable to study at least one example of how a cognitive approach in psychology can make a person's life easier.

Let's say a person comes to the psychologist who suffers headaches that arise when he experiences certain emotions. To help him, the doctor asks the client to keep a detailed diary - what he did, which at the same time felt at what moment the headache occurred. The longer such a diary is maintained, the easier it is to understand why the patient has a headache and help him.

Let's say that the client has an interesting but rather complicated job in which he is trying to do everything perfectly. Experiences and stress during work already make themselves felt, and if the task still did not work out perfectly, then here it is - a strong headache. Well, and in the event that the authorities expressed dissatisfaction with the work done, the client can only sympathize.

So, from the records in the patient's diary, you can understand that it is these emotions (the experience in the performance of work, the disappointment in the failure of the task, the unbearable shame when convicted by the authorities) make him a headache. How can he help? First of all, you should work on eliminating the "excellent worker complex". Striving for excellence is fine, but there must be a limit to everything. After the ideal performance of the task ceases to be the most important for the patient, his condition will improve significantly. Will only get rid of the excessive sense of duty, so that the client has ceased to suffer from shame, hearing the reproaches of the boss.

In fact, it is not so easy to do everything described above and it will be easier to do it in a new workplace.

But, unfortunately, there are absolutely neglected situations in which cognitive psychotherapy does not produce almost any results, and the treatment promises to be prolonged for a long time. What should a psychologist do then? In psychiatry, there is a method similar to cognitive psychotherapy, more effective, but also more rigid.

This method is suggestive psychotherapy, based on hypnosis. During treatment, the doctor immerses the patient in a hypnotic state, in which the client can not take any action. The psychologist produces suggestion in short, extremely clear phrases. As a rule, the person is inspired by optimism, it is said that when he wakes up, he will have to get rid of his illness / fear / aggression / uncertainty.

Suggestive psychotherapy is used in many psychological problems, as well as in physical diseases.