Paper Example on CBT: Correcting False Self-Beliefs to Improve Mood, Self-Concept, & Behaviour

Introduction

CBT is a type of treatment process that can enable a patient to correct false self-beliefs that have contributed to negative moods and behaviors (David, Cristea, & Hofmann, 2018). The assumption that is made by therapists who support this treatment method is that a subject's thoughts precede the individual's mood, and therefore by helping a patient to substitute the negative thoughts with healthy ones will lead to an improvement in the patient's mood, self-concept, behavior and overall physical state.

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Session One (Agenda)

Introduction: the therapists should start by introducing herself and sharing some relevant personal information. Moreover, in case the client fails to respond, she can share information that is similar to the information she wants the client to share through modeling.

Encourage the client to share personal information including: where he or she was born and her development or history, critical things regarding the family, the school that was attended, his or her principle interests such as hobbies, likes, dislikes, goals, and the vital things that are the most important to the client.

The therapist should ask the client about his or her main problem such as what is difficult in their lives or what worries them a lot.

The therapist should then present the purpose of the day's session as well as the goals of the session. The action can be done such that the two: get to know each other better, learn what depression is, discuss the rules for the session, and learn how their thoughts affect the way they feel (Hofmann et al. 2014).

The main aim of the first session is always to introduce both the therapist and the client to the therapy which they are going to participate. Moreover, the type of skills that are often provided is what is called the cognitive behavioral therapy, where cognitive refers to the thoughts, behavioral refers to the actions and depression has the most to do with the feelings that people have. Thus, through identifying the actions and thoughts which affect people's feelings, depressed people can learn to gain control over their mood as well as improving the mood (Hofmann et al. 2014).

With the depicted actions, therefore, CBT sessions are often divided into three modules which shall be discussed: how thoughts affect the mood, how actions affect the mood, and how relationships affect the mood.

Session Two (How Thoughts Affect the Mood)

The therapist should ask the client his or her thoughts to facilitate a great discussion about thoughts. Therefore, the therapist should include the following definition. Thoughts are sentences or phrases that people tell themselves. People often talk about themselves internally but are always not aware of it. Therefore, it is advised for people to think about thoughts as objects or ideas which have a real effect on their minds and bodies (Beck, 2011).

The thoughts affect the way a person feels as different types of thoughts often produce varying effects on one's mood. Some thoughts might increase the depression symptoms while others might help the client feel better.

How do people with depression think? This question should be the first one to be asked to promote a brainstorm on the actual and typical thoughts which the depressed people might have. Some thoughts might be generated during the brainstorm which might be used later and classified differently depending on the type of thoughts. For instance, depressed people often tend to have various types of negative thoughts which might be judgmental, inflexible, unnecessary and destructive. In many occasions, negative thoughts are those that make a person feel bad such becoming useless or being unwanted in society. On the other hand, positive thoughts make a person feel better such doing things that make them feel better each day.

How do people who are not depressed think? The therapist should illustrate and analyze the differences between the thoughts of the depressed versus the thoughts of the undepressed. The action might make the client see the positive side of things. For instance, flexible: my family often has problems, but they also have good things that people can admire. Or, if I can create good habits of studying, then I might improve on my grades.

Learning to identify or choose between harmful or counterproductive thoughts. The therapist should discuss the list of thinking errors. For instance, the therapist can suggest on discussing the different types of negative thoughts or how to look at things that happen to the daily lives of people, which are harmful and they make them feel bad because they distort reality or they are not based on facts.

The therapist can use different worksheets to test the positive and negative thoughts that the client might have such as using the mood thermometer, a list of positive and negative thoughts as well as the A-B-C-D method. This type of treatment only works with the thoughts, relationships, and activities of the depressed person to enhance or improve their moods or the way they feel (Beck, 2011).

Session Three (How Activities Affect the Mood)

For the previous session, different techniques and worksheets were used in reducing the negative thoughts. In this session, different techniques are also being used to help reduce stress.

Pleasant actions or activities need not be special activities. Pleasant activities mostly refer to the daily activities that people love doing or those that make them feel better. However, sometimes it might be challenging to think about what is good or pleasant especially if the activity has not been done in a long period. When a person is more depressed, it becomes more difficult to remember the pleasant things they once did or should do. Therefore, to help the action, a worksheet of the list of pleasant activities might be used and daily records kept.

How can pleasant activities make one feel better? It is always not enough to say to oneself to feel better, but it is often easier to change the actions that one conduct as they might impact on their feelings (Fenn, & Byrne, 2013). Moreover, pleasant activities vary for different people and therefore, people always feel best when the activities are balanced between the things they want to do or those that they have to do. However, it may seem challenging, but one only needs to plan their schedule. Also, the therapist might opt for another worksheet such as a personal contract or a prediction of the pleasant activities that might help the depressed feel better (Fenn, & Byrne, 2013).

Creating goals and ascertaining that they are all achieved. There are several types of goals such as short-term goals, long-term goals, and lifetime goals. The client should identify his or her goals while setting clear and concrete goals. They should then break down their big goals into smaller portions ascertaining that each part of the goal can be achieved without requiring a lot of effort. Additionally, the goals should also be realistic to make achieving them possible.

Session Four (How Relationships Affect the Mood)

Contact with other people affects the mood of a person. Severe depression is often associated with having less contact with people especially those who think negatively, feeling uncomfortable, mad or shy at others, being less assertive or being more prone to feeling ignored, rejected or criticized. One should, therefore, embrace social support to help relieve stress or depression. The support that people often receive from being in contact with many different people is always important for health. The family and friends' contact create a type of protective social support network that makes one feel loved. Moreover, the social support network system often refers to people who are close to us as well those whom a person can share vital information or the significant moments of their lives. Thus, the stronger the support received; the more people can confront challenging situations.

The thoughts of a person while he or she is with others. The therapist should ask whether the thoughts the client has often prevent them from making new friends or make them feel comfortable with other people. It is always recommended for a person to shift the attention focus from themselves to the other party and think about he or she feels in a certain situation.

Expectations that the client has from other people and what other people are also expecting from her. The therapist might explain the concept using different relationships such as friendship or parent-child relationship for the client to share their experiences. Nevertheless, if expectations are often too high, the person might be disappointed and become frustrated. On the other hand, if the expectations are too low, the person might not expect anything from the relationship and might, therefore, lose the chance of developing perfect relationships.

They are proposing change such that the client might have to think before coming into contact with other people. He or she should act differently if they want to change their character with others and also think differently to change their feelings towards others. Therefore, after being with other people, the client should learn from their experiences. Also, think about the thoughts they had which made them feel good or bad (Therapist Aid, 2012-2019).

Session five (Review Homework)

The session should always act as the last session where the client is being reminded about the previous sessions and how to help reduce depression. It also acts as a closing session and where the client gives her or his feedback. The therapist, should, therefore, consider discussing the following points with the client (David, Cristea, & Hofmann, 2018).

• Offer the client information regarding his or her progress and participation throughout the therapy
• Ask the client about her feedback by inquiring what helped most in reducing depression
• Make a plan in managing the possible relapses as well as discussing the strategies that might help prevent them
• Offer recommendations by referring the client to other types of services or therapy in case it is needed.
• Explain talking and discussing with the parents of the client. The therapist can say the following: as you are aware, your parents need to know your progress in the therapy, and so, I am going to meet with them.

Establish an agenda with the client for the parent's meeting in which the therapist might discuss the following: the purpose of the meeting and the specific information the therapist wishes to share with the parents. Also, how the therapist will keep confidential the things the client shared with her or him during the therapy and promise the client that she or he will be general with her words. Ask the client whether there is anything he or she might wish for the therapist not to discuss with the parents (David, Cristea, & Hofmann, 2018).

References

Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond (2nd ed.). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.

David, D., Cristea, I., & Hofmann, S. G. (2018). Why Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Is the Current Gold Standard of Psychotherapy. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00004

Fenn, K., & Byrne, M. (2013). The key principles of cognitive behavioral therapy. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 6(9), 579-585. doi:10.1177/1755738012471029

Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A. (2014). Erratum to: The Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 38(3), 368-368. doi:10.1007/s10608-013-9595-3

Therapist Aid. (2012-2019). The Cognitive Model Worksheet. Retrieved from https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheets/cbt/none.