Cognitive Therapy Exercises

Cognitive therapy helps you to change how you think in certain situations, and make the appropriate adjustments. This therapy is a highly practical approach to problem-solving and it can make a big difference in your life very quickly. Who is this therapy right for, and what should you know before you make an appointment?

Introduction

With cognitive therapy, the core goal is to change unhelpful patterns of thinking or behavior, in turn improving the way you feel and deal with the challenges in your life.

We all have a tendency to continue to hold on to the same old thoughts and fail to learn anything new. Cognitive therapy is not a cure for depression or bipolar disorder, or for any other problem. This therapy introduces you to key principles that you can apply whenever you need to. Cognitive therapy focuses on the thoughts, images, beliefs, and attitudes that you hold and how this relates to the way you behave, as a way of dealing with emotional problems.

This therapy is often used in combination with drug treatment, but can also stand alone. Most people take 3 to 6 months to complete their sessions because although it is quick, cognitive therapy isn’t an overnight process.

What Is Cognitive Therapy Theory?

Cognitive Therapy is based on the theory that how we think, how we feel, and how we act all interact. Our thoughts determine our feelings and our behavior. When you say "I'm useless. I can't do anything right", this impacts negatively on your mood, making you feel depressed. The problem may be serious if you react by avoiding activities and opting out of your life. The therapy can identify those irrational thoughts that lead to negative emotions and identify what it is about them is not helpful. In turn, you can change those thoughts and adopt healthier ones.

When you are depressed all kinds of negative thoughts could overtake your life. There is a theory that it's not events themselves that upset us, but the meanings we give them. The thinking patterns are set up in childhood and become automatic. Cognitive therapy could help you to understand your thinking patterns. It helps you to step outside your automatic thoughts and test them out. This therapy would encourage you examine real-life experiences to see what happens to you, in similar situations.

You must be aware that negative things can and do happen. You may be basing your predictions and interpretations on a biased view of the situation, making the difficulty that you face seem much worse. Cognitive therapy can help you with exercise to correct these misinterpretations.

How does it work?

We all too easily fall into the kind of thinking that can take us one-way down. We usually filter out positive feedback and assume the worst based on little or no evidence. There are some examples. We assume that we are stupid when we misplace book, keys, or lose some other thing. When we don't see life is going as we expect, are thought are seriously negative.

In cognitive therapy, therapist is likely to ask you to recall what you were thinking as you plunged down into your last depression, and work with you in recognizing them before they can cause future damage. Cognitive therapy will help you to develop skills for dealing with your problems. If you have anxiety you may learn that avoiding situations helps to fan your fears. Confronting fears in a gradual way helps give you hope in your own ability to cope. If you are in depression you may learn to record your thoughts and look at them more realistically.

Cognitive therapy may teach you a new approach to dealing with problems that have their basis in an emotional disturbance.

You should be observer of your own nearly automatic worst thoughts. When you recognize those thoughts, you can turn these thoughts around and substitute new ones.

Cognitive therapy is way for long-term recovery. Also is early warning system against future depressions and manic episodes. For more moderate forms of depression cognitive therapy may be a preferred option to drugs. In cognitive therapy you aren’t a passive recipient of care. There are cognitive therapy exercises, homework; they are tools which help you to deal with negative thoughts.

Cognitive therapy has a highly educational component, much use is made of reading material in individual therapy and this has been expanded into a large self-help literature over recent years. Cognitive therapy could be done individually or with a group of people. Therapy can also be done from a self-help book or computer program.

If you have individual therapy, session will last between 30 and 60 minutes. You will need between 5 and 20 sessions. In the first sessions, the therapist will check that you can use cognitive therapy.

You should know that the therapist will also ask you questions about your past life and background.

With the therapist, you break each problem down into its separate parts. You should to keep a diary. This will help you to identify your individual patterns of thoughts.

Together you will look at your thoughts, feelings and behaviors to work out unrealistic or unhelpful thoughts. After you see what you can change, your therapist will recommend "homework". You should practice these changes in your everyday life. Depending on the situation, you might start to: recognize negative thoughts and replace it with a positive (and more realistic), recognize that you are about to do something that will make you feel worse and, instead, do something more helpful. In each session you will discus with your therapist about your progress. The goal of Cognitive therapy is that you can continue to practice and develop your skills even after the sessions have finished. This makes it less likely that your symptoms or problems will return.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

What Is Cognitive Therapy Theory?

How does it work?