Cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) are short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapies that focuses on the relationships among a person’s thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and life experiences. The way we think powerfully affects our emotions, physical sensations, and behaviors and the way we act powerfully influences our emotions and thoughts. CBT emphasizes that you can change the way you feel by changing the way you think and act.
CBT focuses directly on your current difficulties and on enhancing your commitment to your values. CBT skills help us to identify unhelpful thoughts, to investigate them, and to engage in valued behaviors so we can change the way we feel and improve the quality of our life. Individuals can also learn stress-reduction strategies in CBT.
Dr. DeMaio will collaborate with her clients to design a personalized treatment plan that may utilize one particular CBT approach or integrate a number of CBT skills from various approaches. These approaches include behavioral activation, behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive therapy (CT), mindfulness meditation, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), exposure and response prevention (EX/RP), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
CBT is typically time-limited (i.e., 8-20 sessions) and it is essential that the strategies are practiced between sessions. Homework is often assigned in CBT as a way to help individuals generalize the skills learned in therapy sessions to their daily life.
Rigorous research supports CBT’s effectiveness with a wide range of difficulties, including various anxiety disorders, depression, disordered eating, insomnia, mood dysregulation, procrastination, and schizophrenia, self-injury, and substance use.
For more information about CBT, see http://www.abct.org/Information/?m=mInformation&fa=fs_WHAT_TO_EXPECT and http://www.div12.org/psychological-treatments/ for more information about CBT and other evidence-based practices.