Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT focuses on the thinking and behaviors that that lead to depression and anxiety. This therapy will address these patterns through several interventions that are intended to change and alter these thoughts and behaviors that contribute to your unhappiness. We will look at thoughts that are unhelpful and lead to your depression and social anxiety. By following the treatment plan and fully engaging in the interventions the goal is to reduce the symptoms of depression and social anxiety.
“CBT targets the beliefs surrounding your fears. In these sessions you will learn how to recognize negative thoughts and approach social situations. You will gradually be able to face the situations you have been afraid of in the past. Over time, it is our goal for you to feel anxious and more confident in social situations. CBT for depression is a highly effective intervention for client suffering from depression. CBT begins by identifying and addressing behaviors that contribute to depression. Our focus will be providing you the tools for thinking more realistically and helping you feel better.” Interventions for Social Anxiety - Social Skills Training – social skills training is designed to help increase positive behaviors and communication from the client to others. This training involves teaching client skills necessary for common social activities such as meeting new people, initiating conversations, job interviews, and dating. - Role Plays – role playing can be implemented as part of exposure therapy and assertiveness Training. Roles plays are essential part of social skills training. In role plays the counselor provides feedback to the client. - Assertiveness Training – Assertiveness training is a type of intervention that is designed to teach clients how balance passive and aggressive behaviors and be able to empower themselves. The steps of assertiveness training include; assessment, teaching the concept, listing problematic situations, modeling, role play, and practicing the new behavior in the field. - Exposure – Exposure therapy involves slowly confronting the situations that induce anxiety in the client. The more the client confronts the anxiety inducing stimuli, their anxiety will decrease as a result. After several exposures, the client will become use to that stimuli and will be able to graduate to a more anxiety evoking stimuli. In vivo exposure will be used. In vivo exposure, the client will be exposed to social stimuli outside of the clinic, the counselor will accompany the client when needed. The steps of exposure include preparation, creation of an exposure hierarchy, initial exposure, and repeated exposure. - Cognitive Restructuring – this process involves learning how to identify irrational or maladaptive thoughts and how to develop new ways of thinking. These thoughts are challenged by using Socratic dialogue, gathering of evidence, and behavioral experiments. In the Socratic method, the counselor guides the client in identifying all automatic thoughts while making note of misinterpretations being made by the client. The counselor gathers information to challenge maladaptive thoughts. Behavioral experiments involve …show more content…
Interventions for Depression
- Activity planning – activity planning involves using a worksheet that is part of a behavioral activation plan. The client will be asked to list all of their daily activities and give each activity a rating. Once a list of current activities is created the client is instructed to develop a list of rewarding activities that the client enjoys,
- Reward Planning – Reward planning can include buying something or performing an activity that is perceived as rewarding after completing a task that is planned ahead of time. The client is asked to schedule some activities into their daily schedule. These activities are drawn from the client’s list of rewarding behaviors. The client then engages in the planned activities and rates the activities in terms of mastery and pleasure. People are more likely to engage in behaviors in which that associate with pleasure or mastery.
- Self-Reward – Self-rewarding behavior can lead to an increase of positive emotions as well as create positive habits. The steps involved include listing possible rewards, setting criteria for meeting receiving rewards, and then administering …show more content…
Adolescents with depressive and anxious symptom responded better to CBT than to Family Therapy or Interpersonal Psychotherapy (Milin, Walker, & Chow, 2003). 60% of adolescents in Milin, Walker, and Chow’s (2003) study had significantly higher remission rates than family therapy, 29%, or supportive therapy groups,