Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most popular types of therapy when treating disorders such as anxiety, panic disorders, and most commonly, obsessive compulsive disorder. Cognitive behavioral therapy is defined as changing the disturbing thoughts of a person by identifying their feelings, beliefs, and behaviors in order to eventually change the behavior of the person (Courtois, 2009). Cognitive therapy treats many disorders. However, the most common disorder is obsessive compulsive disorder. Obsessive compulsive disorder is defined as having intrusive thoughts or obsessions which increases anxiety. In order to “decrease” the anxiety one must perform repetitive …show more content…
Many patients with severe OCD are encouraged to work in a group because it is proven to be even more effective than individual CBT. The reason for this being that in a larger group the patients are able to have more encouragement and support from others as they work toward changing their thoughts. Group work helps the OCD patients to share their thoughts and experiences they are having and is able to help one another and provide feedback. The main goal in CBT is changing the thought process of the person so that they are able to have more control over their thoughts so that they are able to live a fuller life (Rumina, 2015). In order to change the thought process, first, the patient and therapist analyze the events that lead to the catastrophe. Second, the patient estimates each event separately with the likelihood of it actually happening. Finally, the chance is compared to the original estimate that the patient had about the catastrophe to begin with. These steps are also crucial just like the ones talked about before were as crucial as well. These steps focus on the fear and the goal is to rationalize with the patient about the likelihood of the fear happening. (Van Oppen,