Cognitive therapy in principle and in practice Flashcards
What are the three aims of cognitive therapy?
- Adress maladaptive content
- NATs, cognitive distorsions, behavioural responses, schemas - Positive therapeutic outcome
- measured with symptom reduction - Improve real life function
- provide new insights and skills
- reduce risk of further episodes
What is the difference between what most people often assume, and what clients may believe?
> People often assume that how we feel is governed by specific events or the general situation of our lives, past and present
> Clients may believe nothing can be done to control events or change their situation
What may a simple causal model (event-feelings) lead to in a client?
- Distressing feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness
- Feeling of being trapped
What does the cognitive therapist do at the beginning of treatment?
Explain basic cognitive model, building over the course of therapy
- emphasise the interrelationships between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours
- > rationale for adjustment
- offer element of control back to patients
What is the evidence of the effect of explaining the basic cognitive model to clients at the beginning of treatment?
People who understand and apply the model to their situation tend to:
- engage more in the therapy process
- have better outcomes
What is the principle of socialising the client to the cognitive model?
Explaining, understanding, and appreciating the model early in therapy
- using real examples that the client has described during an initial assessment
e.g. using a blank hot cross bun model, guiding the client to fill in the parts
What are the 12 fundamental characteristics of cognitive therapy?
- Explicit cognitive model
- Individual conceptualisation (‘formulation’)
- Collaborative
- Fixed-term
- Structured, session agenda
- meeting weekly, 12-20 sessions in total - ‘Here-and-now’
- not focused on aetiology of problem - Problem focused
- practical approach - Skills based
- Scientific approach
- Socratic dialogue
- Measurement and recording
- from clients on their thoughts and feelings - Homework
- crucial to therapy outcomes
What is the importance of the collaborative alliance in cognitive therapy?
Important predictor of therapy outcome
What makes cognitive therapy skills based?
Work around understanding and modifying
- the schema
- and core beliefs shaping client’s thinking and behaviour
What are the steps of the scientific approach in cognitive therapy?
- Best guess hypothesis
- based on available evidence on individual’s conceptualisation - Look for evidence that client’s model is accurate
- by guiding them - Client encouraged to test accuracy of perceptions and expectations
- identifying and challenging cognitive distorsions
What is the socratic dialogue used in cognitive therapy?
Pose questions to clients so they find the answers themselves
What does the sessions agenda in cognitive therapy refer to?
The purpose of a session is set out in advance, with summary at the end, and an outline for next session
What are the 6 techniques and tools that underline cognitive therapy and CBT?
- Understanding and recognising cognitive distorsions
- Recognising and identifying automatic thoughts and cognitive distorsions
- Challenging and replacing NATs
- Behavioural experiments
- Identifying core beliefs (schemas)
- Changing core beliefs
How are cognitive distorsions understood and recognised in cognitive therapy?
Help to recognise existence of biases and distortions
- Examples and descriptions
- Quizzes
- In-session prompts
e.g. “Remember how we talked about how we can sometimes make mistakes in how we think? What sort of thinking errors might you have been making?”
What is the first skilled to be learned in cognitive therapy?
Separating out the NATs and connecting them to how we feel