This month I want to introduce you to a therapy form we apply at the Institute.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) attempts to change the dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors of an individual. The common mechanism underlying psychological disorders is distorted or dysfunctional thoughts that affect the psychological state of a person. Realistically re-evaluating and changing these thoughts causes improvement in feelings and behavior.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a short term, present oriented, structured psychotherapy form. The effectiveness of this therapy has been supported by scientific proof.
During the process, in order to define and understand the various problems, work is carried out in a healing oriented collaboration with the consulting person on the relationships between thoughts, feelings and actions. This approach is usually based on “here and now,” that is, focused on the current problems bothering the individual at that moment.
According to the cognitive model, a person’s thoughts affect his/her emotions and actions. Therefore, the aim of the therapy is to restructure the person’s dysfunctional or distorted thoughts. A change in thoughts will enable the individual’s emotions and behavior to change as well.
On the other hand, behavioral therapy involves determining the discordant behavior patterns of the person, and replacing them with new, harmonious and functional behaviors. For the new behaviors, ‘homework’ is assigned for the consulting person to do at home, in collaboration with the person seeking aid. At each session, the homework is reviewed, difficulties determined and worked on.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy can be effective on people with varying educational, income or culture levels.
There are many problem areas that respond to cognitive therapy. Some examples are, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety disorders (panic attack), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa), phobias (social and specific phobias; aviatophobia – fear of flying, etc.) hypochondria (fear of contacting a serious physical illness), somatization disorders (complaints of body aches or pains that have no organic foundation).
We, at the Bengi Semerci Institute, implement the Cognitive Behavior Therapy. In particular, adults with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), individuals whose personal and business lives are adversely affected because of their worries, those that cannot go on business trips due to their fear of flying, and persons who have difficulty in going through their daily lives because of panic attack bouts benefit from these therapy sessions.
In Cognitive Behavior Therapy, the aim of the therapist is to achieve a permanent change in the person’s emotions and behavior, and thus cause a “cognitive change”, in other words, a change in his/her thoughts and beliefs.
Romina Kuyumcuoglu
