Summary
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a highly effective form of therapy that challenges distorted thinking patterns and dysfunctional behaviors. It was developed by Aaron Beck in response to the limitations of psychoanalysis. CBT focuses on identifying automatic thoughts and subjecting them to scrutiny, as well as taking action to test the validity of beliefs. This therapy has proven successful in treating depression, anxiety, and other psychological afflictions, often outperforming pharmaceutical drugs alone. While CBT is commonly used in clinical therapy, there is potential for self-administration, especially in the realm of behavior change.
Highlights
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The basic premise of CBT is that distorted thinking causes psychological distress and dysfunctional behaviors.
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Even if the feedback is a mix of good and bad, the depressive person interprets it in a negative light, triggering automatic thoughts of failure that further depress her mood and make it harder for her to work. This further entrenches the original belief, making similar interpretations more likely in the future.
Relación entre sesgo cognitivo y creencias en psicoterapia cognitivo-conductual.
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CBT encourages people to notice and question their automatic thoughts. Then, they use reasoning and experimentation to test their beliefs and adopt more realistic ones. This process leads to healthier thinking, feeling and behavior.
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Action plans and behavioral experiments designed to test the validity of beliefs are central to CBT. These are especially important for depressed patients, whose illness makes even doing simple chores or self-care incredibly difficult. By taking small actions, you pry open a gap between the self-sustaining feedback loop depressive thoughts and inaction generate