Five Factor Model
CBT Essay
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is based on the integration of 2 schools of psychology which deal with our thoughts (cognitions) and behaviours and how they in turn affect our day to day lives and relationships. As with any school of therapy, it can only ever be effective if used as an intervention at the appropriate time and delivered in the appropriate way. The relationship between Client and Therapist must be solid and based on the core conditions of Genuineness, acceptance and empathy. This being the case, the therapeutic alliance, which forms between client and therapist, is the most crucial part of forming a helping alliance. A successful Therapeutic Alliance will be based on shared goals, a clear understanding …show more content…
of the roles within the Therapy room. There will also be a bond which forms between client and therapist.
Any form of tools and techniques will only ever be useful to a client if they believe the therapist is implementing them with a genuine desire to help facilitate change.
The effectiveness of CBT has been researched extensively over the years (Dobson, 2001). There are over three hundred published studies about the outcomes of cognitive behavioural therapy interventions
CBT offers the client a framework, within which they can work through any issues affecting their quality of life. This structured framework gives the therapy direction and allows the client to set Goals towards which they can work with their therapist. For me, this is one of the most positive things about CBT. From the very outset, the tone is positive and I feel this gives the client at least some sense that if they are willing to work at it, this process will help in getting them some way towards achieving the outcome they want. However, as with any therapy, this client must engage with the process for it to work. It falls to us as therapists to ensure the client’s needs are being met at every stage and CBT encourages this by use of feedback and goal reviews regularly throughout the sessions.
Whilst CBT is proven to be effective in the treatment of anxiety and depression is not effective in all areas and it would not be as useful in the treatment of Grief as this is not something where the clients thinking or behaviour has resulted in the problem.
There are a number of tools/interventions within the CBT framework and amongst them the key ones are:-
Agenda setting; which helps give both client and therapist a structure to work within, gives the sessions some focus and direction. This is a collaborative task and not something to be set for the client. At first I felt that “agenda” was too structured a word and may feel a bit “formal” I now use it without a second thought and realise that was my interpretation.
Measurement and assessment tools, such as the Core assessment, The Burns Anxiety inventory and Mind over Mood Depression inventory, are crucial in helping the therapist get a better understanding of how things are for the client from their perspective and can also be useful to help the client see their life/issues from a Meta position. As part of the assessment, there is a need to assess any risk factors which may be present, both for the client or family members (children) in their life and also within the therapy room itself. Whilst as a therapist, we are there to help the client, if we feel there is a risk to the client or others, we have a moral and ethical duty to take action immediately to prevent any harm coming to the client or anyone in their life. Whilst there is a chance the therapeutic alliance would be damaged in taking such action, this is a duty we have to all parties concerned. The therapist must also be aware of any risk to themselves during the therapy session and safety must always be of paramount importance at all times.
Once the client has completed an assessment and both parties are happy to proceed in working together, the clients goals can be discussed and documented. These will be constantly reviewed and progress noted, again to give focus to working towards solutions and also allows the client to verbalise what they want to achieve from therapy. This again encourages collaboration. I have found that most clients have quite a clear idea of what they want to achieve from therapy, there have been occasion when a client hasn’t thought much past the “why” they are there. I felt a bit unsure at first on persisting with the goal setting part, but have come to see the real benefit in having the clients goals documented so progress can be monitored against the clients own objectives.
When the client has shared their story and set some goals to work towards, the therapist then builds a picture by means of open questioning and measuring to establish what the main issues are and how they affect the client, how and when they occur and also how it affects others in their life.
This will allow the therapist and client to create some form of Case Formulation. This is the basis for establishing a “plan of action” between client and therapist and sets a positive tone from the outset and builds on the tone of collaboration. This case formulation will be a work in progress and will need to change and be updated as new information comes to light as the client shares and uncovers the layers of their issues.
CBT is at all stages a transparent way of working with clients as it is made clear by the therapist that everything that is being done/suggested is for the clients benefit, but the therapist will be working right alongside them at every stage.
More and more I am coming to realise that really effective CBT must be based on a solid foundation of a strong therapeutic alliance which is the part of being a therapist which I find most natural and rewarding. By giving clients a safe, non-judgemental space to be completely themselves, I believe clients are freed from the worry of trying to edit what they want to say, which is probably what they have to do with other people in their lives. To this end, I have found it invaluable to discuss with my supervisor, some issues which have arisen for me in the therapy room.
Having had a few sessions now, both in skills practise and co-counselling, as a client, I have felt how liberating it is to be able to be totally honest about something really personal to you and for your honesty to be met with an open, non-judging response. To get some sense of how a client may feel on entering the therapy room, I feel we must go there ourselves too. I suppose to talk the talk, we really have to walk the walk.
CBT teaches us that it is not necessary events themselves which upset us, but more the meanings and interpretations that we have given to those events. CBT is geared towards helping client’s uncover their unhelpful thoughts and then working with CBT tools to change those thoughts. This is done to help the client achieve a more balanced way of thinking about themselves, others and the world, thus generating a more positive experience of life and a more helpful way of being for clients.
There are useful tools to help in this process, amongst which are The Five Factor Model, which can help a client distinguish between thoughts and feelings, something which lots of clients find difficult.
This allows the client to see their thoughts and reactions in a stressful situation and evaluate what was really going on for them in that slice of time. Often by helping a client focus on everything that they experience is these situations, thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, behaviours, they can see the links between how their thoughts drive everything else that happens and how their thoughts change or determine the outcome in any situation. It wasn’t until I used a five factor model with a client that I realised how powerful it is to see a client relive an experience but more so, become aware that their reactions was more than just thoughts. Having worked through a few five factor models on myself, I was able to get a much deeper sense of the value in unlocking a client’s awareness of their reactions, emotional, physical and …show more content…
mental.
Working with Thought Records are also a useful way to help clients work through a distressing situation and identify patterns of unhelpful thoughts. This then highlights automatic or negative thoughts which can be worked on to help the client established a more balance thought pattern. Thought records can be difficult for client to work with as it requires them to challenge and question their long held beliefs of themselves, others and the world in which they live. I have spent some time working with a client who was resistant to using thought records for the first few attempts, but we persevered and the results were quite surprising to the client when she began to fully commit to being open and honest with her thoughts and feelings This client will now do thought records mentally for any distressing situation and can change an unhelpful reaction fairly quickly to one which is more balanced.
Clients can work with Activity schedules to help identify situations/events which bring out and reveal patterns in low mood/negative thoughts. As with most of the tools in CBT, bringing these patterns into the clients’ awareness is often the first step towards change. A large part of what we do as CBT therapists is psycho educational and we are sharing tools with our clients so that they may, in time, become their own therapists and learn to implement these tools whenever they need to when life throws up a challenge. Having done some activity schedule work on myself, I realised that if I go to bed early, the following day gets off to a better start as I am fresh. I now plan to be in bed early on alternate nights and this new pattern has had a positive effect on my mood in the mornings.
In some situations, clients become stuck in a negative perspective and CBT can help offer a different perspective and this can then be tested in reality by way of a behavioural experiment. These are offered to the client as something they can chose to work with or not, as the clients’ willing participation and belief in the process is paramount to achieving lasting change. This type of work is more likely to be accepted by the client if the therapeutic alliance is strong. One such experiment is the “empty chair” technique and this is a very powerful way of allowing a client to have a “conversation” or monologue with some significant figure in their life with whom they have some issues, but for whatever reason, a conversation with them is not possible or perhaps wouldn’t be a positive experience. This technique is something I have used myself in my skill practise and on that occasion it was used for me to hear from someone I loved (my sister) what she would tell me about how I am doing with everything when I feel I am not coping so well. This was a hugely emotional experience for me and I found it very useful to step out of my own head and thoughts and get a more balanced perspective on where I was. I have also used this with a client who wanted to talk to her mother as her 14 year old self to share with her how hurt she felt about certain things. The client said she felt a huge sense of relief and I could actually feel it and see from her emotional reaction that what she felt was really moving.
Client will have developed their own unique set of rules by which they live, this will be the view of the world they live by. An example might be that someone with a core belief of “I am not good enough” will operate from a set of rules that are something like, “if I always strive for perfection, then people will think I am good enough”. These hard a fast rules will perhaps work for a time, but problems occur when these rules no longer work and in fact the rules themselves then become part of the problem. Clients will have a set of conditional or core beliefs that they live by. These will be based on their beliefs about themselves, others and the world. Many clients are unaware that they have these beliefs as they are deep rooted and usually form in the very early part of their life. Uncovering them can be done by exploring the clients’ family dynamics and the role they adopted within the family. Often working with the main influential figures in early life will highlight something which could be the basis for the client’s current problems. Also by asking about recurring problems in intimate/close relationships and how they cope with them. These beliefs have formed the client’s perspective on their life and their world to date and as such, cannot be quickly changed. To work at this level of deeper cognitions with a client must only be done when the client is already making links themselves between their past, when these core beliefs would have established themselves, and the present, where the rules for living they have in place to endorse the core belief are no longer serving them in a positive way. No matter how unhelpful the clients core belief and rules for living are, they are the how they have lived for a long time and this has to be worked on at the clients pace and only when they are ready to work at this level. Having looked at my own core beliefs as part of my skills practise, it was amazing to me how my rules for living were firmly in place and I was blissfully ignorant of how they kept me repeating the same kind of relationships which were unhealthy for me
The downward arrow technique (Burns, 1980) is a useful way to help a client uncover what their unhelpful thoughts mean to them rather than how they feel about them. This kind of Socratic or open questioning is crucial for a therapist to use to try and get a much deeper understanding of the world from the client’s perspective, as it is this perspective which is important.
Once the therapist understands the world, as seen from the clients’ perspective, then the therapeutic alliance becomes really effective and truly collaborative. Helping a client establish an alternative Core Belief can be done using a few different techniques. Working on an alternative core belief would be working towards reframing how clients view themselves, others and the world. For someone with a core belief of “I am not good enough”, an alternative might be “I always try my best at everything” or “ I am good enough” This can be backed up by working on a positive data log, in which the client can document all positive experiences which backs up this new belief. Whilst it is working towards change, this can take time as it is working on the clients firmly held beliefs. However, clients come to therapy as their current way of operating is not working and this means they are more than likely ready and willing to give up these old beliefs for something that could offer a more positive way of being. Again in CBT our role as therapist is psycho educational and sharing these theories with clients is in itself a powerful tool as most clients will begin to make links between many recurring patterns of thoughts and behaviours in their lives and once they can begin to see that there is an alternative, they will be more likely to fully engage in working through the various tools available. . Having looked at an alternative core belief for myself, I began to realise that I have my own power to choose what I accept from other people and the best way to test this for me was to change my “pattern” of subduing my own desires for the sake of keeping things running smooth with no upset or confrontation. In reality, the threat of upset or confrontation was more in my own mind and testing this with my family and friends really helped me accept my alternative belief.
One very effective method of testing these new core beliefs are Behavioural experiments. These are often more effective that cognitive techniques as clients are encouraged to act against their conditional beliefs and this may well be the first time they have even considered that to do so could even be possible. Any experiments must only be undertaken when there is a realistic chance of a positive outcome and the client is willing to record the outcome for feedback. Should the outcome not be positive, then another experiment can be put in place and feedback from this reviewed. This process can be repeated until a successful outcome is reached and the client demonstrating that they have benefited from the process. Behavioural experiments will take some time to work through and it may well be that the client will try and avoid doing them or make excuses. This is when, as a CBT therapist, we must challenge the client to gain commitment to the process and be strong and confident enough with the client to help them see the massive importance of these experiments. Using Core Continuum work can help a client see themselves on a scale which can help put some perspective on where they think they are and can help in working through the cognitive errors which are keeping them stuck in their situation and way of thinking. Using comparison scales, where the client will compare themselves to others, friends, family or even high profile media personalities, can help them put things into context which can almost be enough to put some perspective on their thoughts. Often a client has a black and white view of themselves and the world which can be restricting their ability to change.
Constant feedback and reviewing of goals throughout sessions will help ensure that progress is being made from the clients’ perspective. Checking in with a client to get their understanding of what is happening in sessions for them is crucial as there will be clients with certain attachment styles who will say what they think they should or what the therapist wants to hear. Rating and measuring tools help to consolidate and check the progress made and make it more real for the client. This also allows to gauge where the client would like to be and what it would take for them to reach their goal. The language of CBT is very positive and keeps focus on what can be achieved rather than what has gone on in the past. However, clients must commit to the process to benefit from it and it is our role as CBT therapist to always be checking with clients how the sessions are progressing from their perspective.
Overall, I am finding the practise of CBT to be a very powerful way of helping clients to firstly become aware of unhelpful thinking patterns and then move with them through the process using CBT tools to reframe their thinking, giving them a more balanced perspective on themselves, others in their life and the world in General.
My aim as a CBT therapist is to share with my clients the tools and knowledge that will allow them to become their own therapist, giving them a much more positive experience of life.
Word Count
Essay 3355
Less word count and references 20
Total word count 3335
http://www.123helpme.com/the-effectiveness-of-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-view.asp?id=223036 April 29th 2014
Scotacs Diploma in CBT and group work course notes = Centre of Therapy,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty-chair_technique#The_empty_chair_technique May 1st
2014
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is based on the integration of 2 schools of psychology which deal with our thoughts (cognitions) and behaviours and how they in turn affect our day to day lives and relationships. As with any school of therapy, it can only ever be effective if used as an intervention at the appropriate time and delivered in the appropriate way. The relationship between Client and Therapist must be solid and based on the core conditions of Genuineness, acceptance and empathy. This being the case, the therapeutic alliance, which forms between client and therapist, is the most crucial part of forming a helping alliance. A successful Therapeutic Alliance will be based on shared goals, a clear understanding …show more content…
of the roles within the Therapy room. There will also be a bond which forms between client and therapist.
Any form of tools and techniques will only ever be useful to a client if they believe the therapist is implementing them with a genuine desire to help facilitate change.
The effectiveness of CBT has been researched extensively over the years (Dobson, 2001). There are over three hundred published studies about the outcomes of cognitive behavioural therapy interventions
CBT offers the client a framework, within which they can work through any issues affecting their quality of life. This structured framework gives the therapy direction and allows the client to set Goals towards which they can work with their therapist. For me, this is one of the most positive things about CBT. From the very outset, the tone is positive and I feel this gives the client at least some sense that if they are willing to work at it, this process will help in getting them some way towards achieving the outcome they want. However, as with any therapy, this client must engage with the process for it to work. It falls to us as therapists to ensure the client’s needs are being met at every stage and CBT encourages this by use of feedback and goal reviews regularly throughout the sessions.
Whilst CBT is proven to be effective in the treatment of anxiety and depression is not effective in all areas and it would not be as useful in the treatment of Grief as this is not something where the clients thinking or behaviour has resulted in the problem.
There are a number of tools/interventions within the CBT framework and amongst them the key ones are:-
Agenda setting; which helps give both client and therapist a structure to work within, gives the sessions some focus and direction. This is a collaborative task and not something to be set for the client. At first I felt that “agenda” was too structured a word and may feel a bit “formal” I now use it without a second thought and realise that was my interpretation.
Measurement and assessment tools, such as the Core assessment, The Burns Anxiety inventory and Mind over Mood Depression inventory, are crucial in helping the therapist get a better understanding of how things are for the client from their perspective and can also be useful to help the client see their life/issues from a Meta position. As part of the assessment, there is a need to assess any risk factors which may be present, both for the client or family members (children) in their life and also within the therapy room itself. Whilst as a therapist, we are there to help the client, if we feel there is a risk to the client or others, we have a moral and ethical duty to take action immediately to prevent any harm coming to the client or anyone in their life. Whilst there is a chance the therapeutic alliance would be damaged in taking such action, this is a duty we have to all parties concerned. The therapist must also be aware of any risk to themselves during the therapy session and safety must always be of paramount importance at all times.
Once the client has completed an assessment and both parties are happy to proceed in working together, the clients goals can be discussed and documented. These will be constantly reviewed and progress noted, again to give focus to working towards solutions and also allows the client to verbalise what they want to achieve from therapy. This again encourages collaboration. I have found that most clients have quite a clear idea of what they want to achieve from therapy, there have been occasion when a client hasn’t thought much past the “why” they are there. I felt a bit unsure at first on persisting with the goal setting part, but have come to see the real benefit in having the clients goals documented so progress can be monitored against the clients own objectives.
When the client has shared their story and set some goals to work towards, the therapist then builds a picture by means of open questioning and measuring to establish what the main issues are and how they affect the client, how and when they occur and also how it affects others in their life.
This will allow the therapist and client to create some form of Case Formulation. This is the basis for establishing a “plan of action” between client and therapist and sets a positive tone from the outset and builds on the tone of collaboration. This case formulation will be a work in progress and will need to change and be updated as new information comes to light as the client shares and uncovers the layers of their issues.
CBT is at all stages a transparent way of working with clients as it is made clear by the therapist that everything that is being done/suggested is for the clients benefit, but the therapist will be working right alongside them at every stage.
More and more I am coming to realise that really effective CBT must be based on a solid foundation of a strong therapeutic alliance which is the part of being a therapist which I find most natural and rewarding. By giving clients a safe, non-judgemental space to be completely themselves, I believe clients are freed from the worry of trying to edit what they want to say, which is probably what they have to do with other people in their lives. To this end, I have found it invaluable to discuss with my supervisor, some issues which have arisen for me in the therapy room.
Having had a few sessions now, both in skills practise and co-counselling, as a client, I have felt how liberating it is to be able to be totally honest about something really personal to you and for your honesty to be met with an open, non-judging response. To get some sense of how a client may feel on entering the therapy room, I feel we must go there ourselves too. I suppose to talk the talk, we really have to walk the walk.
CBT teaches us that it is not necessary events themselves which upset us, but more the meanings and interpretations that we have given to those events. CBT is geared towards helping client’s uncover their unhelpful thoughts and then working with CBT tools to change those thoughts. This is done to help the client achieve a more balanced way of thinking about themselves, others and the world, thus generating a more positive experience of life and a more helpful way of being for clients.
There are useful tools to help in this process, amongst which are The Five Factor Model, which can help a client distinguish between thoughts and feelings, something which lots of clients find difficult.
This allows the client to see their thoughts and reactions in a stressful situation and evaluate what was really going on for them in that slice of time. Often by helping a client focus on everything that they experience is these situations, thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, behaviours, they can see the links between how their thoughts drive everything else that happens and how their thoughts change or determine the outcome in any situation. It wasn’t until I used a five factor model with a client that I realised how powerful it is to see a client relive an experience but more so, become aware that their reactions was more than just thoughts. Having worked through a few five factor models on myself, I was able to get a much deeper sense of the value in unlocking a client’s awareness of their reactions, emotional, physical and …show more content…
mental.
Working with Thought Records are also a useful way to help clients work through a distressing situation and identify patterns of unhelpful thoughts. This then highlights automatic or negative thoughts which can be worked on to help the client established a more balance thought pattern. Thought records can be difficult for client to work with as it requires them to challenge and question their long held beliefs of themselves, others and the world in which they live. I have spent some time working with a client who was resistant to using thought records for the first few attempts, but we persevered and the results were quite surprising to the client when she began to fully commit to being open and honest with her thoughts and feelings This client will now do thought records mentally for any distressing situation and can change an unhelpful reaction fairly quickly to one which is more balanced.
Clients can work with Activity schedules to help identify situations/events which bring out and reveal patterns in low mood/negative thoughts. As with most of the tools in CBT, bringing these patterns into the clients’ awareness is often the first step towards change. A large part of what we do as CBT therapists is psycho educational and we are sharing tools with our clients so that they may, in time, become their own therapists and learn to implement these tools whenever they need to when life throws up a challenge. Having done some activity schedule work on myself, I realised that if I go to bed early, the following day gets off to a better start as I am fresh. I now plan to be in bed early on alternate nights and this new pattern has had a positive effect on my mood in the mornings.
In some situations, clients become stuck in a negative perspective and CBT can help offer a different perspective and this can then be tested in reality by way of a behavioural experiment. These are offered to the client as something they can chose to work with or not, as the clients’ willing participation and belief in the process is paramount to achieving lasting change. This type of work is more likely to be accepted by the client if the therapeutic alliance is strong. One such experiment is the “empty chair” technique and this is a very powerful way of allowing a client to have a “conversation” or monologue with some significant figure in their life with whom they have some issues, but for whatever reason, a conversation with them is not possible or perhaps wouldn’t be a positive experience. This technique is something I have used myself in my skill practise and on that occasion it was used for me to hear from someone I loved (my sister) what she would tell me about how I am doing with everything when I feel I am not coping so well. This was a hugely emotional experience for me and I found it very useful to step out of my own head and thoughts and get a more balanced perspective on where I was. I have also used this with a client who wanted to talk to her mother as her 14 year old self to share with her how hurt she felt about certain things. The client said she felt a huge sense of relief and I could actually feel it and see from her emotional reaction that what she felt was really moving.
Client will have developed their own unique set of rules by which they live, this will be the view of the world they live by. An example might be that someone with a core belief of “I am not good enough” will operate from a set of rules that are something like, “if I always strive for perfection, then people will think I am good enough”. These hard a fast rules will perhaps work for a time, but problems occur when these rules no longer work and in fact the rules themselves then become part of the problem. Clients will have a set of conditional or core beliefs that they live by. These will be based on their beliefs about themselves, others and the world. Many clients are unaware that they have these beliefs as they are deep rooted and usually form in the very early part of their life. Uncovering them can be done by exploring the clients’ family dynamics and the role they adopted within the family. Often working with the main influential figures in early life will highlight something which could be the basis for the client’s current problems. Also by asking about recurring problems in intimate/close relationships and how they cope with them. These beliefs have formed the client’s perspective on their life and their world to date and as such, cannot be quickly changed. To work at this level of deeper cognitions with a client must only be done when the client is already making links themselves between their past, when these core beliefs would have established themselves, and the present, where the rules for living they have in place to endorse the core belief are no longer serving them in a positive way. No matter how unhelpful the clients core belief and rules for living are, they are the how they have lived for a long time and this has to be worked on at the clients pace and only when they are ready to work at this level. Having looked at my own core beliefs as part of my skills practise, it was amazing to me how my rules for living were firmly in place and I was blissfully ignorant of how they kept me repeating the same kind of relationships which were unhealthy for me
The downward arrow technique (Burns, 1980) is a useful way to help a client uncover what their unhelpful thoughts mean to them rather than how they feel about them. This kind of Socratic or open questioning is crucial for a therapist to use to try and get a much deeper understanding of the world from the client’s perspective, as it is this perspective which is important.
Once the therapist understands the world, as seen from the clients’ perspective, then the therapeutic alliance becomes really effective and truly collaborative. Helping a client establish an alternative Core Belief can be done using a few different techniques. Working on an alternative core belief would be working towards reframing how clients view themselves, others and the world. For someone with a core belief of “I am not good enough”, an alternative might be “I always try my best at everything” or “ I am good enough” This can be backed up by working on a positive data log, in which the client can document all positive experiences which backs up this new belief. Whilst it is working towards change, this can take time as it is working on the clients firmly held beliefs. However, clients come to therapy as their current way of operating is not working and this means they are more than likely ready and willing to give up these old beliefs for something that could offer a more positive way of being. Again in CBT our role as therapist is psycho educational and sharing these theories with clients is in itself a powerful tool as most clients will begin to make links between many recurring patterns of thoughts and behaviours in their lives and once they can begin to see that there is an alternative, they will be more likely to fully engage in working through the various tools available. . Having looked at an alternative core belief for myself, I began to realise that I have my own power to choose what I accept from other people and the best way to test this for me was to change my “pattern” of subduing my own desires for the sake of keeping things running smooth with no upset or confrontation. In reality, the threat of upset or confrontation was more in my own mind and testing this with my family and friends really helped me accept my alternative belief.
One very effective method of testing these new core beliefs are Behavioural experiments. These are often more effective that cognitive techniques as clients are encouraged to act against their conditional beliefs and this may well be the first time they have even considered that to do so could even be possible. Any experiments must only be undertaken when there is a realistic chance of a positive outcome and the client is willing to record the outcome for feedback. Should the outcome not be positive, then another experiment can be put in place and feedback from this reviewed. This process can be repeated until a successful outcome is reached and the client demonstrating that they have benefited from the process. Behavioural experiments will take some time to work through and it may well be that the client will try and avoid doing them or make excuses. This is when, as a CBT therapist, we must challenge the client to gain commitment to the process and be strong and confident enough with the client to help them see the massive importance of these experiments. Using Core Continuum work can help a client see themselves on a scale which can help put some perspective on where they think they are and can help in working through the cognitive errors which are keeping them stuck in their situation and way of thinking. Using comparison scales, where the client will compare themselves to others, friends, family or even high profile media personalities, can help them put things into context which can almost be enough to put some perspective on their thoughts. Often a client has a black and white view of themselves and the world which can be restricting their ability to change.
Constant feedback and reviewing of goals throughout sessions will help ensure that progress is being made from the clients’ perspective. Checking in with a client to get their understanding of what is happening in sessions for them is crucial as there will be clients with certain attachment styles who will say what they think they should or what the therapist wants to hear. Rating and measuring tools help to consolidate and check the progress made and make it more real for the client. This also allows to gauge where the client would like to be and what it would take for them to reach their goal. The language of CBT is very positive and keeps focus on what can be achieved rather than what has gone on in the past. However, clients must commit to the process to benefit from it and it is our role as CBT therapist to always be checking with clients how the sessions are progressing from their perspective.
Overall, I am finding the practise of CBT to be a very powerful way of helping clients to firstly become aware of unhelpful thinking patterns and then move with them through the process using CBT tools to reframe their thinking, giving them a more balanced perspective on themselves, others in their life and the world in General.
My aim as a CBT therapist is to share with my clients the tools and knowledge that will allow them to become their own therapist, giving them a much more positive experience of life.
Word Count
Essay 3355
Less word count and references 20
Total word count 3335
http://www.123helpme.com/the-effectiveness-of-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-view.asp?id=223036 April 29th 2014
Scotacs Diploma in CBT and group work course notes = Centre of Therapy,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty-chair_technique#The_empty_chair_technique May 1st
2014