Dr.
Lovette is a
cognitive-behavioral
psychologist whose focus is on
brief psychotherapy.
His pragmatic, solution-focused approach uses
proven psychological and
behavioral modification
technologies to help you feel
better as fast as possible.
Solution-Focused, Brief Therapy
Solution-focused brief therapy focuses on
what clients want to achieve through
therapy, rather than on the problem that
made them seek help.
The
solution-focused approach does not focus on
the past; instead it focuses on the present
and future. Dr. Lovette uses curiosity to
invite the client to envision their
preferred future and then he and client
start working towards it in small
incremental steps.
To support
this, questions are asked about the client’s
story, strengths and resources, and about
exceptions to the problem. Scaling is also
used as a tool to measure progress.
Solution
focused therapists believe that if a person
has the capacity to describe something as a
problem that person also has the capacity to
describe what better means in his/her
everyday life and that since they are able
to describe that they also have the
resources needed to make it happen.
One assumption
in solution-focused therapy is that you
bring a lot of personal strengths to coping
in your life. The goal of solution-focused
therapy is to increase and build on these
strengths and to create workable solutions
for the challenges you face.
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Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an
action-oriented form of psychosocial therapy
that assumes that maladaptive, or faulty,
thinking patterns cause maladaptive behavior
and "negative" emotions. The treatment
focuses on changing an individual's thoughts
(cognitive patterns) in order to change his
or her behavior and emotional state.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a
collaborative, action-oriented therapy
effort. As such, it empowers the patient by
giving him an active role in the therapy
process and discourages any overdependence
on the therapist that may occur in other
therapeutic relationships.
Treatment is relatively short in
comparison to some other forms of
psychotherapy, usually lasting no longer
than 16 weeks. Many insurance plans provide
reimbursement for cognitive-behavioral
therapy services. Because coverage is
dependent on the disorder or illness the
therapy is treating, patients should check
with their individual plans.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy combines the
individual goals of cognitive therapy and
behavioral therapy.
Pioneered by psychologists Aaron Beck and
Albert Ellis in the 1960s, cognitive therapy
assumes that maladaptive behaviors and
disturbed mood or emotions are the result of
inappropriate or irrational thinking
patterns, called automatic thoughts. Instead
of reacting to the reality of a situation,
an individual reacts to his or her own
distorted viewpoint of the situation. For
example, a person may conclude that he is
"worthless" simply because he failed an exam
or didn't get a date. Cognitive therapists
attempt to make their patients aware of
these distorted thinking patterns, or
cognitive distortions, and change them (a
process termed cognitive restructuring).
Behavioral therapy, or behavior
modification, trains individuals to replace
undesirable behaviors with healthier
behavioral patterns. Unlike psychodynamic
therapies, it does not focus on uncovering
or understanding the unconscious motivations
that may be behind the maladaptive behavior.
In other words, strictly behavioral
therapists don't try to find out why their
patients behave the way they do, they just
teach them to change the behavior.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy integrates
the cognitive restructuring approach of
cognitive therapy with the behavioral
modification techniques of behavioral
therapy. The therapist works with the
patient to identify both the thoughts and
the behaviors that are causing distress, and
to change those thoughts in order to
readjust the behavior.
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Techniques
of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
In some cases, the patient may have certain
fundamental core beliefs, called schemas,
which are flawed and require modification. A
number of different techniques may be used
in cognitive-behavioral therapy to help
patients uncover and examine their thoughts
and change their behaviors. They include:
Behavioral homework assignments.
Cognitive-behavioral therapists frequently
request that their patients complete
homework assignments between therapy
sessions. These may consist of real-life
"behavioral experiments" where patients are
encouraged to try out new responses to
situations discussed in therapy sessions.
Cognitive rehearsal. The patient
imagines a difficult situation and the
therapist guides him through the
step-by-step process of facing and
successfully dealing with it. The patient
then works on practicing, or rehearsing,
these steps mentally. Ideally, when the
situation arises in real life, the patient
will draw on the rehearsed behavior to
address it.
Journal.
Patients are sometimes asked
to keep a detailed diary recounting their
thoughts, feelings, and actions when
specific situations arise. The journal helps
to make the patient aware of his or her
maladaptive thoughts and to show their
consequences on behavior. In later stages of
therapy, it may serve to demonstrate and
reinforce positive behaviors.
Modeling. The therapist and patient
engage in role-playing exercises in which
the therapist acts out appropriate behaviors
or responses to situations.
Conditioning. The therapist uses
reinforcement to encourage a particular
behavior. For example, a child with ADHD
gets a gold star every time he stays focused
on tasks and accomplishes certain daily
chores. The gold star reinforces and
increases the desired behavior by
identifying it with something positive.
Reinforcement can also be used to extinguish
unwanted behaviors by imposing negative
consequences.
Systematic desensitization. Patients
imagine a situation they fear, while the
therapist employs techniques to help the
patient relax, helping the person cope with
their fear reaction and eventually eliminate
the anxiety altogether. For example, a
patient in treatment for agoraphobia, or
fear of open or public places, will relax
and then picture herself on the sidewalk
outside of her house. In her next session,
she may relax herself and then imagine a
visit to a crowded shopping mall. The
imagery of the anxiety-producing situations
gets progressively more intense until,
eventually, the therapist and patient
approach the anxiety-causing situation in
real-life (a "graded exposure"), perhaps by
visiting a mall. Exposure may be increased
to the point of "flooding," providing
maximum exposure to the real situation. By
repeatedly pairing a desired response
(relaxation) with a fear-producing situation
(open, public spaces), the patient gradually
becomes desensitized to the old response of
fear and learns to react with feelings of
relaxation.
Validity testing. Patients are asked
to test the validity of the automatic
thoughts and schemas they encounter. The
therapist may ask the patient to defend or
produce evidence that a schema is true. If
the patient is unable to meet the challenge,
the faulty nature of the schema is exposed.
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Uses for
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can be used in
any situation in which there is a pattern of
unwanted behavior accompanied by distress
and impairment.
Based on scientific research,
cognitive-behavioral therapy is a
recommended treatment option for a number of
mental disorders, including depression,
personality disorders, social phobia,
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating
disorders, substance abuse, anxiety or panic
disorder, agoraphobia, post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), and
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD).
It is also frequently used as a tool to deal
with chronic pain for patients with
illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis, back
problems, and cancer. Patients with sleep
disorders may also find cognitive-behavioral
therapy a useful treatment for insomnia.
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NOTE: Information on this page was taken
from HealthAtoZ.com:
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/cognitive-behavioral_therapy.jsp
