How Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Used At Ohio Recovery Center?

CBT is one of the most popular and effective forms of psychotherapy, or talk therapy. By helping you identify negative beliefs and change them, CBT can help you recover from addiction or another mental health disorder. 

At Ohio Recovery Center, our mental health professionals offer CBT in both individual and group therapy settings to provide the greatest benefits.

What Is CBT?

CBT is a type of therapy that can help you identify and change negative thinking and behavioral patterns. This process can improve your mood, sense of well-being, and relationship skills. It can also help you make healthier decisions when faced with difficult feelings or situations.

Who Benefits From CBT?

Developed in the 1960s by psychiatrist Aaron Beck, CBT was inspired by a similar therapeutic approach called rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Beck created CBT to treat clinical depression. 

However, CBT has since been proven as an effective treatment for many other mental health conditions and issues, including:

• anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and phobias
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia
• borderline personality disorder (BPD)
• bipolar disorder
• schizophrenia
• insomnia
• substance use disorder (SUD)

Studies suggest CBT may also benefit people with physical health problems, such as chronic pain. It can work for adults, adolescents, and children. Also, like many other types of therapy, it can take place in-person or virtually. 

Forms Of CBT

Many different types of therapy and therapy techniques have branched off from CBT.

These include the following, also provided at ORC:

• dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which focuses on regulating your emotions, improving your relationship skills, and increasing your distress tolerance
• acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which focuses on accepting difficult thoughts and feelings and acting according to your values
• exposure interventions, which focus on gradually facing your fears so you become less sensitive to them

Your CBT therapist can help you determine which form or forms will work best for you.

How Long Do CBT Sessions Last?

In general, therapy sessions last 45 minutes to one hour. Because CBT is typically considered short-term therapy, most people receive it once a week for five to 20 weeks. Others receive it more often or for a longer period of time, depending on individual need. 

Common CBT Techniques

CBT employs a variety of techniques to promote healthy beliefs and behavior changes.

Goal-Setting

Early on in your sessions, your therapist will work with you to identify your short-term and long-term goals. These goals may involve your relationships, career, hobbies, or other aspects of your life. 

Setting clear goals helps motivate you through the highs and lows of your mental health journey.

Reframing

Reframing means replacing negative thought patterns with more positive, realistic alternatives. Negative thoughts often involve cognitive distortions. 

The most common cognitive distortions include:

• black-and-white thinking (such as the thought “I always mess up”)
• personalization (“It’s always my fault”)
• mind-reading (“They must hate me”)
• overgeneralization (“I’ll never be happy”)
• fortune-telling (“I will fail as a parent”)
• comparison (“Everyone’s smarter than me”)
• catastrophizing (“If this relationship ends, I’ll be alone forever”)
• disqualifying the positive (“That compliment was probably a lie”)

Guided Discovery

During guided discovery, your therapist will help you explore your thoughts and determine whether they contain any distortions. This is done in an exploratory, nonjudgmental way, with your therapist encouraging you to consider other perspectives. 

Role-Playing

In role-playing, your therapist acts out situations that you tend to have difficulty with. This process helps you practice using CBT principles in a safe, supportive setting, which can improve your confidence, social skills, and problem-solving skills. 

Relaxation Techniques

When you first start facing your negative thoughts and beliefs, you might feel a great deal of anxiety. That’s why CBT therapists often share relaxation techniques with their clients.

Common relaxation techniques used in CBT include:

• deep breathing
• meditating
• journaling
• progressive muscle relaxation
• spending time in nature

Why CBT Works

When dealing with poor mental health, you may not be aware of how your thoughts and beliefs are contributing to your unhelpful behaviors. CBT helps you identify negative beliefs and change them to gain control of your actions and make healthier choices. 

For example, people with social anxiety disorder often hold the belief “No one likes me.” This may cause them to avoid social situations, which often leads to loneliness, increased anxiety, and even depression. In other words, it just makes their mental health worse. 

A CBT therapist can help them identify the belief “No one likes me” as unhelpful and unrealistic. 

They can then learn to replace it with a more realistic thought, such as “Some people like me, and some people don’t; I can build a fulfilling life even if some people don’t like me.” When adopting this thought, the person will often find it easier to socialize and engage in other healthy behaviors.

Does CBT Work For Everyone? 

CBT might not work for everyone. If you try CBT and feel it’s not benefiting you, talk to your therapist. 

In some cases, they may recommend that you continue with the treatment, as it can take time to see results. Other times, your therapist might recommend that you switch to another type of CBT, another type of therapy, or another mental health intervention altogether.

Start Your Recovery At Ohio Recovery Center

To learn more about cognitive behavioral therapy and the other evidence-based treatment options for mental illness and substance use disorder at ORC, please reach out to us.