A large majority of today’s mental health problems are caused by negative thoughts, perceptions, and expectations. Traumatic experiences can also cause a person to change how they think or behave throughout their lives.
To combat the adverse effects that negative thoughts and beliefs have on your mental health, we provide CBT therapy in Los Angeles to help you create a more positive approach to life.
So what is cognitive-behavioral therapy? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a form of talk therapy effective for several different disorders such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and substance use disorders.
There is substantial research linking the use of CBT therapy to a significant improvement in quality of life and overall function. Studies have shown that it can be as effective as, or even more effective than, other forms of psychological or psychiatric therapy.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment/therapy that requires much participation from you and your therapist. Working in tandem with your therapist will help you learn healthy emotional habits and coping skills.
During sessions, your therapist might ask you to take some homework that you will do outside of your scheduled sessions.
Throughout CBT therapy, you will learn to understand and recognize your negative thoughts and automatic response that enter your mind. You will also learn to identify triggers to prevent negative thoughts and feelings from entering your brain.
Doing so helps you better prepare for when you do get triggered and how to deal with your emotions and reactions to those events.
A cognitive approach can often help set the stage and focus the work concurrently with trauma treatment. CBT can be used in conjunction with more specialized forms of therapy. One of the most effective treatment methods for trauma is cognitive-behavioral therapy combined with EMDR, brainspotting, or holistic therapies.
As previously mentioned, CBT is used to treat a wide range of mental health disorders and related issues.
It is often considered the preferred type of psychotherapy in the mental health and addiction recovery community because it quickly identifies and helps manage particular challenges.
You can expect to walk through a few steps in CBT during your therapy sessions.
The first is identifying troubling situations in your life. This can include anything from medical conditions or life problems like losing a loved one or divorce.
From there, you learn to be aware of your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs about these issues in your life. Once you and your therapist identify these problems, you will talk through them and interpret what it means to you.
At this point, you will practice recognizing negative thoughts and thinking and try to reshape them into more positive ones. This new positive way of thinking will help you get into the habit of not always seeing the bad in situations.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy in Los Angeles is not an all-in-one solution to cure your mental health disorders or make your issues go away. It can provide you with healthy habits and coping mechanisms to feel better about yourself and your life.
If you want to learn more about our trauma-focused holistic therapy-centered addiction treatment center in Silver Lake, contact us today.