The treatment is effective when it is done as a systematic process and it takes time. Patients need to encounter problem situations numerous times in order to have the opportunity to retrain their thinking and thereby change their behaviors. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been successful in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, insomnia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder.

Cognitive behavioral therapy had its beginnings in the 1960’s when advances in behavioral therapy, which had been around since the 1920’s, was combined with the new field of cognitive therapy. Both techniques had their strengths and weaknesses but combining the two seemed to be the best of both worlds. As long as the patient had significant cognitive functions to understand the underlying assumptions that were responsible for their negative behaviors, then they could be retrained to assess the situation more correctly and generate a different emotion or behavior as a response in place of the negative one.

Each individual creates their own unique view of any given situation. This view is based in part on our past experiences as other environmental factors. For some people, this view is distorted and that leads them to an irrational response to the situation. Given their distorted view, this response may seem to be perfectly acceptable. Therefore the first step in cognitive behavioral therapy is to teach people to view the trouble situations clearly so that they can then learn the correct appropriate reaction.

This approach which directly engages the patient’s behaviors is in stark contrast to the psychoanalysts approach like that pioneered by Freud. Freud’s techniques look backwards, searching out the root of the problem, while cognitive behavioral therapy looks forward to the end result and starts there. The theory being that if you eliminate the symptoms, then you have effectively cured the disorder. CBT requires repetition to teach patients the appropriate responses to stimuli and to help them understand how to make that right choice so they are able to apply those new decision making skills to real life situations.

In this way, cognitive behavioral therapy owes a debt to early behavioral researchers like Ivan Pavlov who among his many experiments showed that dogs could be trained to salivate at the sound of a bell if the sound was repeatedly associated with their mealtime. In the same way, positive behaviors are trained into patients until that hopefully becomes their natural response instead of the negative behavior that brought them to therapy in the first place.

For the therapist, the key to solving a patient’s behavioral problems lies in uncovering the underlying assumptions that the patient holds that act as a trigger for the behavior. Once the therapist has identified these flawed assumptions, they can help the patient change them. Once the patient understands that the assumptions they held were wrong, they can be replaced with ones that are correct. Once this transformation occurs, the patients reactions to situations will also change and the negative, inappropriate behavior will be eliminated.

Given the types of assumptions or even core beliefs that the therapist is asking the patient to question and ultimately change, the situation can naturally be quite volatile. For this reason the these techniques take time. A therapist does not want to shake a patient’s belief to the core without giving them something else to build upon so the therapist must move slowly in steps. Validity testing is a common first step, where the patient is asked to explain or defend his or her beliefs or assumptions. If they are faulty, then eventually the patient will see the flaws in the logic. The therapist cannot simply tell the patient this however, the patient has to learn it on their own so they understand it as well as accept it.

The results of cognitive behavioral therapy show that the lengthy process is worth the effort because in the end it is effective. That is why cognitive behavioral therapy is the number one treatment for a wide variety of disorders from bulimia to panic disorder.

Bethany Jordan is an Information Technology professional and aspiring writer who was clinically diagnosed with SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder) in 2007.

She maintains a website dedicated to sharing information on natural antidepressants, herbal remedies for anxiety and depression, and anxiety disorders in general. Everyone is welcome and invited to visit http://www.naturalantidepressants.info …

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bethany_Jordin

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a combination of traditional behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy. They are combined into a treatment that is focused on symptom removal. The effectiveness of the treatment can clearly be judged based on its results. The more it is used, the more it has become recommended. It is now used as the number one treatment technique for post traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and bulimia.

Cognitive behavioral therapy first began to be used between 1960 and 1970. It was a gradual process of merging behavioral therapy techniques and cognitive therapy techniques. Behavioral therapy had been around since the 1920’s, but cognitive therapy was not introduced until the 1960’s. Almost immediately the benefits of combining it with behavioral therapy techniques were realized. Ivan Pavlov, with his dogs who salivated at the ringing of the dinner bell, was among the most famous of the behavioral research pioneers. Other leaders in the field included John Watson and Clark Hull.

Instead of focusing on analyzing the problem like Freud and the psychoanalysts, cognitive behavioral therapy focused on eliminating the symptoms. The idea being that if you eliminate the symptoms, you have eliminated the problem. This more direct approach was seen as more effective at getting to the problem at hand and helping patients to make progress more quickly.

As a more radical aggressive treatment, behavioral techniques dealt better with more radical problems. The more obvious and clear cut the symptoms were, the easier it was to target them and devise treatments to eliminate them. Behavioral therapy was not as successful initially with more ambiguous problems such as depression. This realm was better served with cognitive therapy techniques.

In many academic settings, the two therapy techniques were used side by side to compare and contrast the results. It was not long before the advantages of combining the two techniques became clear as a way of taking advantage of the strengths of each. David Barlow’s work on panic disorder treatments provided the first concrete example of the success of the combined strategies.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is difficult to define in a succinct definition because it covers such a broad range of topics and techniques. It is really an umbrella definition for individual treatments that are specifically tailored to the problems of a specific patient. So the problem dictates the specifics of the treatment, but there are some common themes and techniques. These include having the patient keep a diary of important events and record the feelings and behaviors they had in association with each event. This tool is then used as a basis to analyze and test the patient’s ability to evaluate the situation and develop an appropriate emotional response. Negative emotions and behaviors are identified as well as the evaluations and beliefs that lead to them. An effort is then made to counter these beliefs and evaluations to show that the resulting behaviors are wrong. Negative behaviors are eliminated and the patient is taught a better way to view and react to the situation.

Part of the therapy also includes teaching the patient ways to distract themselves or change their focus from something that is upsetting or a situation that is generating negative behavior. They learn to focus on something else instead of the negative stimulus, thus eliminating the negative behavior that it would lead to. The problem is essentially nipped in the bud. For serious psychological disorders like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, mood stabilizing medications are often prescribed to use in conjunction with these techniques. The medications give the patient enough of a calming effect to give them the opportunity to examine the situation and make the healthy choice whereas before they could not even pause for rational thought.

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been proven effective for a variety of problems, but it is still a process, not a miracle cure. It takes time to teach patients to understand situations and identify the triggers of their negative behaviors. Once this step is mastered, it still takes a lot of effort to overcome their first instincts and instead stop and make the right choices. First they learn what they should do, and then they must practice until they can do it.

Bethany Jordan is an Information Technology professional and aspiring writer who was clinically diagnosed with SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder) in 2007.

She maintains a website dedicated to sharing information on natural antidepressants, herbal remedies for anxiety and depression, and anxiety disorders in general. Everyone is welcome and invited to visit http://www.naturalantidepressants.info …

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bethany_Jordin

Cognitive behavioral therapy is an approach used by psychotherapists to influence a patient’s behaviors and emotions. The key to the approach is in its procedure which must be systematic. It has been used successfully to treat a variety of disorders including eating disorders, substance abuse, anxiety and personality disorders. It can be used in individual or group therapy sessions and the approach can also be geared towards self help therapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a combination of traditional behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy. They are combined into a treatment that is focused on symptom removal. The effectiveness of the treatment can clearly be judged based on its results. The more it is used, the more it has become recommended. It is now used as the number one treatment technique for post traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and bulimia.

Cognitive behavioral therapy first began to be used between 1960 and 1970. It was a gradual process of merging behavioral therapy techniques and cognitive therapy techniques. Behavioral therapy had been around since the 1920’s, but cognitive therapy was not introduced until the 1960’s. Almost immediately the benefits of combining it with behavioral therapy techniques were realized. Ivan Pavlov, with his dogs who salivated at the ringing of the dinner bell, was among the most famous of the behavioral research pioneers. Other leaders in the field included John Watson and Clark Hull.

Instead of focusing on analyzing the problem like Freud and the psychoanalysts, cognitive behavioral therapy focused on eliminating the symptoms. The idea being that if you eliminate the symptoms, you have eliminated the problem. This more direct approach was seen as more effective at getting to the problem at hand and helping patients to make progress more quickly.

As a more radical aggressive treatment, behavioral techniques dealt better with more radical problems. The more obvious and clear cut the symptoms were, the easier it was to target them and devise treatments to eliminate them. Behavioral therapy was not as successful initially with more ambiguous problems such as depression. This realm was better served with cognitive therapy techniques.

In many academic settings, the two therapy techniques were used side by side to compare and contrast the results. It was not long before the advantages of combining the two techniques became clear as a way of taking advantage of the strengths of each. David Barlow’s work on panic disorder treatments provided the first concrete example of the success of the combined strategies.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is difficult to define in a succinct definition because it covers such a broad range of topics and techniques. It is really an umbrella definition for individual treatments that are specifically tailored to the problems of a specific patient. So the problem dictates the specifics of the treatment, but there are some common themes and techniques. These include having the patient keep a diary of important events and record the feelings and behaviors they had in association with each event. This tool is then used as a basis to analyze and test the patient’s ability to evaluate the situation and develop an appropriate emotional response. Negative emotions and behaviors are identified as well as the evaluations and beliefs that lead to them. An effort is then made to counter these beliefs and evaluations to show that the resulting behaviors are wrong. Negative behaviors are eliminated and the patient is taught a better way to view and react to the situation.

Part of the therapy also includes teaching the patient ways to distract themselves or change their focus from something that is upsetting or a situation that is generating negative behavior. They learn to focus on something else instead of the negative stimulus, thus eliminating the negative behavior that it would lead to. The problem is essentially nipped in the bud. For serious psychological disorders like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, mood stabilizing medications are often prescribed to use in conjunction with these techniques. The medications give the patient enough of a calming effect to give them the opportunity to examine the situation and make the healthy choice whereas before they could not even pause for rational thought.

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been proven effective for a variety of problems, but it is still a process, not a miracle cure. It takes time to teach patients to understand situations and identify the triggers of their negative behaviors. Once this step is mastered, it still takes a lot of effort to overcome their first instincts and instead stop and make the right choices. First they learn what they should do, and then they must practice until they can do it.

Bethany Jordan is an Information Technology professional and aspiring writer who was clinically diagnosed with SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder) in 2007.

She maintains a website dedicated to sharing information on natural antidepressants, herbal remedies for anxiety and depression, and anxiety disorders in general. Everyone is welcome and invited to visit http://www.naturalantidepressants.info …

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bethany_Jordin

Mental health professionals and staff thrive across the globe. Psychiatric counselling has helped patients a great deal in coming out of depressions, rectifying personality disorders, correcting insomnia etc. Aids Phobia is common among a large number of people. Possessing little or lack of knowledge about HIV, and misinformed about Aids, people panic and suffer from mental and physical aspects. There are many such psychic disorders and phobias, schizophrenic cases, nervous disorders that require the expertise of a psychiatrist to deal with these.

Anorexia is a very common psychological disorder and more so in today’s young girls. Anorexia is a mental disorder where a person stops eating or eats less for fear of getting fat. Eventually such habit leads to a loss of appetite. The concept of hour glass figure is a growing trend among today’s young girls and it has had disastrous effects on the body and mind. Anorexia nervosa is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among young women. 1% of all teenage girls suffer from the condition, while for boys it is 0.1%. The disease has physical side effects like infertility among women.

Like Anorexia, other common mental disorders include hallucination, depression, headache, fatigue, anxiety, confusion, erratic behaviour, hearing voices, and weight loss.

Psychiatry deals with what’s inside the head. And what’s inside the head is a result of some chemical imbalance which did not happen one fine day. The way people think, their beliefs, their culture and the experience, situations in life and a lot of other things tend to shape up their psyche, their thought pattern which might at moments or for a long time be seriously challenged due to circumstances. A psychiatrist through mental counselling and dosage of medicine try to revive the balance in the mind. The function of psychiatric treatment is to open the closed mind of the patient. The closed mindedness is what harms the patient who then undergoes tremendous depression, leading to symptoms of regular psychological disorder.

Schizophrenia is another common serious psychotic disorder and a consistent challenge in the field of psychiatry from a long time. It is an abnormal perception of reality that affects all five senses- sight, touch, smell, hearing, and touch. Hallucinations, bizarre delusions, abnormality in speech and disorganized thinking pattern, multiple and split personality traits, paranoia are common behavioral patterns among schizophrenic patients. People with schizophrenia usually suffer from major depression and anxiety disorders. Substance abuse including hard drugs remains a common problem. Social problems, such as unemployment, poverty and homelessness, are common. The average life expectancy of people with schizophrenia is about 10 years less than those without. One major reason behind this is the high suicidal rate among schizophrenics. Although not hereditary, Schizophrenia tends to run in families.

Delusion is another very common psychological disorder. People can have various degrees of delusions. In such cases, the patient holds on to his own idea about something even if it is wrong. The person might become so disillusioned, that he would not budge from his viewpoint even if presented with the correct facts. A person might believe that some conspiracy is going on behind his back. This might happen in workplace or at home. This leads to unrest, abnormal behavior, and rash reactions if the degree of delusion becomes high. Sometimes the patient’s beliefs get out of proportion and he might think of himself as Napoleon or Hitler or anyone else. Such short and long term delusions are common case studies in psychiatry.

Visual and/or auditory hallucinations must have had happened to everyone but the difference between normal and abnormal lies in the frequency of such hallucinations. People see things that are not there, or hear a voice as if someone called them. For people suffering from hallucinations, it happens often. Drug abuse is one reason for hallucination, where the treatment of drug abuse is more important than dealing with hallucination. For those hallucinating to a great extent without the help of any psychotic substance, psychological counselling and mild steroids and prescribed medicines work wonders.

The Department of Psychiatry in Vydehi Hospital provides exemplary clinical care, consultation services and treatment, both to inpatients and outpatients, along with crisis and emergency services. The department is devoted to the optimal recovery of patients suffering from psychiatric problems. The department has state of the art equipments for various therapies namely Biofeedback Therapy Relaxation therapy, Multi Behaviour therapy, Brain Polariser Sex Therapy, Aversion Therapy, Electro-Sleep Therapy, Electro-convulsive therapy. A different department deals with psychological issues and cases. The psychiatric services empower individuals to change their lives in a positive manner.

About The Author

Article written by Ranadwip Saha , working for Vydehi Medical College Bangalore.Who use to write blogs and articles in web.

You should be able to master the art of body language as it will empower you with the ability to know what the person sitting next to you is brooding over.

Body language comprehension and then deductions is a discipline of art and science. Each person nods or moves to show certain emotions or to communicate something. Each action has a cause and the necessary effect. Hence learning to understand body language, gestures and hints are essential.

1. A person crossing his or her arms over his or her chest is a commanding and also fundamental gesture. One interpretation is that the person is drawing a wall, maybe without actually knowing that he or she is doing it, between himself or herself and the person he or she is conversing with. Another interpretation could be that the person is slightly shivery or feeling cold and hence is hugging his or her own self to keep him or herself warm. If it is done in a jovial environment then it might be that the person is pondering over the topic of conversation. In case the situation is one of conflict then the gesture is surely one of resistance. In case the listener inclines away from the person who is talking, the resistance gesture is emphasized. When the listener has a cold or empty look on his face it means sheer unfriendliness. This person is surely not a friend and also might contemplate serious measures to oppose the situation.

2. When a person keeps looking into the eyes of the speakers, it can mean two things – a) the listener affirms what is being said to him or her. b) The listener does not have faith on the speaker and chooses not to get him or her out of sight. Again if the listener keeps averting his or her gaze, it means that he or she is not too interested and does not really share similar views with the speaker. People suffering from anxiety disorders usually cannot hold on their gaze comfortably. Just because we learn from childhood to maintain eye contact while talking to a person, this motion is not a very efficient method to judge a person’s mood or thoughts. In case a person has his or her arms across his or her chest and is also holding your gaze, then it might mean that he or she wishes to discuss with you some matter that has been troubling him or her. When a person is fiddling with some object and also looking straight into your eyes, he or she is indeed thinking of something else.

3. A person stroking the ear or scratching the chin is quite surprised and shocked due to some reason. Eyes feeling tired or even scratchiness indicate similar feelings. If a person does not believe in what he or she is being told, then it is quite natural that his or her attention will waver. He or she will generally be distracted and stare at some far off landscape.

4. A person generally represents Boredom by moving the head to either of the sides or even by staring blankly at the person he or she is talking to. A person might also be suffering from a pain in the neck if he or she turns the head to one side. A distracted look in the eye may also be due to some optical disorder.

5. If a person is intrigued and thrilled by the conversation, it is shown by constantly looking into the speaker’s eyes.

6. If someone keeps stroking his or her face while talking to another person, it might mean that the speaker is trying to hide facts or deceiving the listener.

About The Author

Keith Ward is the Founder and Director of the Circle of Professional Clairvoyants, which offers Psychic Readings with fully qualified Senior UK Clairvoyants and Psychics.