Cognitive Therapy

Codrina is a 40 year old woman that has come to me seeking counseling, after many years of experiencing traumatizing events in her life. Her childhood years were spent living in an orphanage in isolation, hunger and a very poor environment. She had to fend for herself as a teen and was in many abusive relationships before she met her husband when she was 36. Codrina’s husband is having extra marital affairs and Codrina is fine with it since it means that she does not have to have sex with her husband, because she is too depressed and in a subdued mood most of the time and does not feel like having sex. When her husband told her about the affair, she acted with no emotion and acted as if she did not care and so her husband thought that she never
Cognitive therapy functions on several levels, looking for and changing a person’s symptoms, as well as their perspectives, core beliefs and underlying schemas (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2013) and once healthy thinking takes place then the therapist helps the person develop skills to continue to monitor, assess and respond to their own cognitions that allow them to lead successful healthy lives (Seligman & Reichenberg,
The cognitive therapy techniques that would be successful for treating Codrina and helping her to realize that she is worthy of having a fulfilling, happy life and being realistic in the here and now and not living in the past, would be reality therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy. Helping Codrina to “become aware of her irrational and unhelpful thoughts in an educational and confrontational way to modify them because if she is aware of how often her thoughts are negative and self-defeating then she can make a more conscious effort to think in ways that are more positive and helpful and she will be able to confront her thoughts and make them more productive (Argosy Course Notes,