Throughout our article we will be talking a little about the beck's cognitive therapy, which was developed to treat depression that originates from depression. She continues reading to find out more.
What is cognitive therapy?
Beck's Cognitive Therapy What is it?
Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on the processes through which an individual becomes aware of his or her environment and has knowledge of the world and its outcomes.
We well know that Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy is somewhat difficult to understand. However, here we will try to explain everything in an understandable way. In this aspect, the psychologist focuses his model on the personal suffering of an individual by the particular analysis of the facts, but not of these in themselves, therefore Beck came to show great interest in how this interpretation plays an important role. inside the depression.
It's worth noting that the first to systematically use the foundations of cognitive science to treat psychological disorders were Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck. The former called his therapeutic model "Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy" (REBT), while Beck called his therapeutic method "Cognitive Therapy." At this point, we should clarify that there are several models of cognitive therapy, but these are the two best known due to their excellent practical uses.
What is Beck's Cognitive Therapy?
To treat depression and other disorders, Beck discusses cognitive restructuring. It is about ensuring that the patient has the ability to modify the models that she uses to interpret, for this reason she studies the situations experienced and the subjective assessment of the facts. Since she knows the schemes with which the patient works, in therapy she works on them so that they lose firmness.
Through this treatment, the individual visualizes himself and finds schemes to observe the world in a different way and in a more beneficial way for his health.
If we observe a person who has erroneous and mistaken thoughts in his way of interpreting what happens in his day to day, all these thoughts and interpretations that the person makes over time, become so constant that, finally, they become stereotyped and tense ways about their own perception of what happens to them and their behavior.
The best example is that of people who suffer from depression. These people constantly have negative thoughts about themselves and often wonder what the future holds, as they always see it as hopeless. They focus solely on their negative thoughts to the point of exaggeration and neglect to consider the positive aspects.
What is it about?
Although cognitive therapy was developed from the beginning to treat problems related to depression, over time designs were created based on the same theory that were used to treat other types of mental disorders and problems related to discomfort. emotional, such as anxiety.
Since this therapy states that a person's behavior and emotions are based on their way of perceiving their world, it was determined that the thoughts a person has are directly related to those emotions and the behaviors they display. In addition, some of these approaches are also used to treat various mental health issues, such as Parkinson's detection.
The psychological model proposed by Beck indicates that individuals do not respond automatically to a situation; rather, before issuing an emotional or behavioral response, they evaluate, perceive, interpret, classify, and assign meaning to the stimulus in relation to their prior assumptions or cognitive schemas. Some of the most important points that describe Beck's therapy are:
cognitive schemes
This is based mainly on the structures that contain the mechanisms for encoding, storing and retrieving information. This includes memory, perception, interpretation, and attention, which means that it shows how you perceive something specific and how you interpret it.
cognitive organization
The model presented by Aaron Beck detects that the individual gives an interpreted and evaluated response to a certain situation, so that we do not act automatically. What Beck expresses is that, behind a large part of our behaviors, there is a specific style of processing information, based on our cognitive schemes that obtain a great influence based on this behavior.
cognitive products
With this, Beck refers to those thoughts that come from the interaction with the information provided by a specific situation. In addition to the fact that schemas, the cognitive organization itself and clearly beliefs also interact in this case. That is, the way an individual acts based on his way of perceiving the world and his way of being.
Beliefs
According to Aaron Beck, cognitive schemas are mainly made up of beliefs. It could be said that they are guides that allow each person to see the world, make sense of it and build structures through their experiences. Some are lasting, absolute, identitarian, nuclear and absolute; others, on the other hand, are peripheral, in that case they would include all those that are created by the circumstances and the emotional state of the individual at a certain moment.
Beck's Cognitive Triad
For this point, it was explained graphically by means of a triangular figure since this is how the fact that thoughts influence emotions, emotions influence behavior and vice versa is represented.
Which means that there is indeed a reciprocal influence between the 3 parties. When an individual faces a given situation, the schema is the basis for transforming data into cognitions. People with negative schemas or who tend to make certain processing errors will be more likely to experience depressive disorders; As Aaron Beck puts it:
“consists of three main cognitive patterns that lead the patient to view himself, his future, and his experiences in an idiosyncratic way”
To give an example, we have a patient suffering from anxiety who begins to have certain thoughts such as: "I'll have an anxiety attack again," "I can't get over this," "I'll never feel better." These types of thoughts, when they manifest constantly, can provoke a reaction (emotion) that can be sadness and anguish, which will eventually lead to acting in accordance with this and the physical beginning of experiencing a panic attack (behavior).
Thus, if a person becomes accustomed over time to always being triggered by the same type of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, these thoughts will become increasingly entrenched and will be more difficult to eradicate.
Beck Cognitive Therapy Treatment Plan
The main objective that Beck presents about cognitive therapy is that the patient, together with the therapist, creates new experiences that allow him to attenuate those that have been established since childhood and that are negative for his way of feeling and acting. The fact of reforming the patient's belief is not done through a debate, but rather objective evidence is sought to examine her beliefs and from that a more positive reality is established through practical data.
For example, a person who has a false belief and has developed a phobia of entering a pool because they think that if they enter, they will surely get stuck in a grate and drown, can be argued and proven that pool grates are safe and will not cause problems. In addition, this type of thinking can also be useful in the treatment of glossodynia.
Beginning
To describe our last point on this topic, and since we know a little more about the beck's cognitive therapy, we would be left to list the principles of cognitive therapy that are governed to treat depression and other disorders of the mood of an individual.
- Beck's first principle or cognitive triad: we have already developed this point previously, it is based mainly on the patient's way of thinking and the problems he presents in cognitive terms. That is, the illogical thoughts of the patient who presents are identified, as well as the actions that he carries out and that generate problems.
- Second: it is based on the relationship and alliance between the patient and the therapist.
- Third: it focuses on collaboration and active participation. It is proven that patients who show greater interaction during treatment have a 50% chance of finding the necessary help and thus solving their problems.
- Fourth: with this therapy we focus on achieving goals and it focuses on certain problems. Therefore, from the first session with the patient, the main problems must be established.
- Fifth: cognitive therapy is in the present. So the patient is shown what it is to act in the here and now and if he acts considering that. It also highlights how thoughts of the past or future affect present emotions.
- Sixth: This therapy is basically educational, as it aims to teach the patient to become their own therapist by teaching them to identify all those negative thoughts about themselves, their irrational beliefs and where they come from in order to learn to modify them and generate positive ideas.
- Seventh: This type of therapy tends to be limited. In other words, it is intended that the patient already shows improvements from the fourth session and that by the fourteenth session they already have enough tools to alleviate the symptoms they present, however, in all cases it will not be the same.
- Eighth: We come to the point of structured sessions. That is, they have a script and a logical order that must be followed to facilitate self-therapy for the patient, allowing the psychologist to focus on the most important points the patient presents.
- Nono: This therapy allows the patient to evaluate and analyze their dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors.
If you liked our article, we invite you to visit our website to find more interesting information such as How to improve interpersonal relationships? You can also find useful information about Beck's cognitive therapy in booksYou should also remember that our article is for informational purposes only, and we are not qualified to diagnose or recommend treatments. If you need help, don't hesitate to consult a psychologist who will provide you with the necessary information. We also provide this informative video.
