Cognative Behavioural Therapy CBT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Cognative Behavioural Therapy CBT - Essay Example What is CBT? There are several types of cognitive behavior therapy acclaimed by the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists, such as ‘dialectic behavior therapy, rational living and rational behavior therapy, or rational emotive behavior therapy’ (Dryden 2002, p. 18). The essence of these approaches is to make a patient be aware of triggers of his addiction. It is relevant to help patients to develop new strategies for dealing with stressing situations and coping with addictions, respectfully. During the process of a functional analysis, therapists makes the addict persons define their inner thoughts and ideas that occur inside of them during the process of drugs/alcohol consumption or after it. There is another option for therapists to develop a behavioral model relevant to the addicted individuals. Counselors should be able to identify risky situations when relapse may occur. In this case it is relevant to develop skills that may help a patient to overc ome this risk. With this regard, it is possible to make group sessions and teach clients skill elements by means of â€Å"roleplaying and real life practice exercises that will enable them to apply these skills to meet their own needs† (Marlatt 2007, p. 32). Clients should be ensured in receiving constructive feedback from counselors. A long-lasting behavioral change may occur when self-efficacy expectations are modified. CBT is efficient for clients who are actively involved in treatment process and are willing to be responsible for their future abuse prevention. In this case, during CBT a client obtains healthy behaviours instead of maladaptive habits: â€Å"As the individual undergoes a process of deconditioning, cognitive restructuring, and skills acquisition, he or she can begin to accept greater responsibility for changing the behavior. This is the essence of the self-control or self-management approach: one can learn how to escape from the clutches of the vicious cycl e of addiction, regardless of how the habit pattern was originally acquired† (Rasmussen 2000, p. 116). It is important for counselors to reread required sections of manual before each session and highlight necessary points, which have to be covered during a training session. It is important for a client to hear from counselor a natural speech and not just listening to manual citing. During each session, a counselor should inform the client about the most important issues for his daily life. At this point, client’s information and examples from his life should be used by counselors as illustrative material. Therefore, CBT is effective in case relevant measures are developed by a therapist. In order to develop a relevant treatment strategy, it is necessary to conduct more than 20 documented controlled trial tests, if to refer to data of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (The Official Website of the Institute). Generally speaking, it is also efficient to combine CBT wit h group support sessions and other types of support strategies. It is also important to develop a flexible approach to CBT treatment development. A flexible approach implies an individual development of CBT for every patient. The main advantage for CBT as a treatment for patients with addictions is its short time performance and a personalized treatment. Currently, CBT is widely used for patients with no psychotic disorders, or those who suffer from bipolar disorder. A shift to cognitive