Cognitive Therapy
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What sets professional counseling apart from layperson counseling such as (biblical counseling, para-professional Christian/pastoral counseling, and life coaching), is the fact that to provide professional counseling one must at minimum have a professional Master's degree in a form of professional counseling (Mental Health Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Psychology, Clinical Social Work) from an accredited university or college. One must sit for an intense comprehensive national exam and pass it. One must go through a rigorous state licensing process, one must complete a mandatory 3000 state required supervised training hours, and one must utilize a clinical theory as trained in school to call the services they provide professional counseling or psychotherapy. Counseling that is considered professional utilizes one of the therapeutic modalities that all professional counselors learn in their professional master's/doctoral program.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychological treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol, and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness. Numerous research studies suggest that CBT leads to significant improvement in functioning and quality of life. In many studies, CBT has been demonstrated to be as effective as, or more effective than, other forms of psychological therapy or psychiatric medications.
It is important to emphasize that advances in CBT have been made on the basis of both research and clinical practice. Indeed, CBT is an approach for which there is ample scientific evidence that the methods that have been developed actually produce change. In this manner, CBT differs from many other forms of psychological treatment.
CBT is based on several core principles, including:
Psychological problems are based, in part, on faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking.
Psychological problems are based, in part, on learned patterns of unhelpful behavior.
People suffering from psychological problems can learn better ways of coping with them, thereby relieving their symptoms and becoming more effective in their lives.
CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns. These strategies might include:
Learning to recognize one’s distortions in thinking that are creating problems, and then to reevaluate them in light of reality.
Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others.
Using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations.
Learning to develop a greater sense of confidence in one’s own abilities.
CBT treatment also usually involves efforts to change behavioral patterns. These strategies might include:
Facing one’s fears instead of avoiding them.
Using role-playing to prepare for potentially problematic interactions with others.
Learning to calm one’s mind and relax one’s body.
Not all CBT will use all of these strategies. Rather, the psychologist and patient/client work together, in a collaborative fashion, to develop an understanding of the problem and to develop a treatment strategy.
CBT places an emphasis on helping individuals learn to be their own therapists. Through exercises in the session as well as “homework” exercises outside of sessions, patients/clients are helped to develop coping skills, whereby they can learn to change their own thinking, problematic emotions, and behavior.
CBT therapists emphasize what is going on in the person’s current life, rather than what has led up to their difficulties. A certain amount of information about one’s history is needed, but the focus is primarily on moving forward in time to develop more effective ways of coping with life.
Source: APA Div. 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology)
Our Christ-Centered Approach
CBT fits perfectly into my Christ-Centered approach of counseling because it seeks to improve the client's thinking which the Bible instructs as needing renewal. It is in the Scripture that we find evidence-based instruction for change, healing, wholeness, peace, and transformation. That instruction is found in Romans 12:2 where Paul, by the power of Jesus Christ challenges believers of Christ that rather than conforming to the culture of the world and its sometimes harmful, hurtful, and useless ways, we should be transformed by the improvement of our thinking so that we can live the life that Jesus died for us to have. Using CBT concepts and techniques, Christ is made magnified in His Person, Power, and His sole Divine ability to bring about total life improvement. Excellent Life Professional Christian Counseling provides those who so desire, Christ-Centered Clinical Counseling to help them to achieve the life they desire to live.