Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 4/7/09

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do.

"Cognitive-behavioral therapy does not exist as a distinct therapeutic technique. The term "cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)" is a very general term for a classification of therapies with similarities. There are several approaches to cognitive-behavioral therapy, including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Rational Behavior Therapy, Rational Living Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, and Dialectic Behavior Therapy."

I think Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a an interesting form of therapy because it allows one to think about how we feel. The more they think about how they feel the more they can describe their emotions and feelings. Understanding how one feels may be important to their life or make their life more meaningful because they feel they understand themselves, they feel they are more connected to life because they understand the way their body reacts to certain situations. Therefore they are able to understand others around them. I would like to be able to understand how I feel and why I make the decisions I do. I need to think of how to describe my feelings and or emotions.

CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts cause how we feel and what we do and not by external "forces," like people and different situations. Although I agree with most of this theory, I still believe that our thoughts come about because we experience life all around us, we are somehow influenced by other people and ideas. So, yes, our thoughts cause how we feel, but our thoughts are made when our bodies react to a situation, causing us to think. I guess this could go both ways. Starting from our thoughts and or influenced by situations in life, depending on the person.

I'm sure there are types of people who think to themselves all they time. They do not need to experience anything from the outside world to come up with unique thoughts that provoke all these feelings and emotions. In this case it is possible that our thoughts cause how we feel and what we do.

What makes an emotion or behavior dysfunctional?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy
http://www.nacbt.org/whatiscbt.htm