Through the development and emergence of cognitive behavioral therapy as—disputably—the most effective and empirically validated psychotherapy, CBT has been discovered to have many strengths as well as some challenges (Spiegler, 2010). Undoubtedly, CBT has had plenty of success in treating a host of different psychological disorders as well as success in treating people from a variety of diverse backgrounds. CBT has proven to be not just an effective means of treating psychological disorder but has also been regarded as efficient, precise, ethical, and widely applicable. Amongst the challenges that CBT and most other psychotherapies are faced with are issues concerning durability of change, prevention of pathology, cultural sensitivity, adjusting
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Commonly, ethical violations in psychotherapy have been associated with causing harm to patients and taking away the rights of patients (Spiegler, 2010). CBT has been credited with ensuring therapeutic practices do not harm or deprive patients of their rights. In the case of neglecting or not knowing then treatment should be terminated, CBT is easily monitored by quick self-report questionnaires or assessments to determine when patients have reached a point in their recovery where they no longer need therapy. Also, when aversion therapy is used to desensitize patients from a phobic stimulus, some fear or anxiety may arise but there is sufficient empirical evidence to support that the negative emotion that patients experience in that moment is not …show more content…
Although CBT is greatly effective in initiating change in patients, maintaining change is a separate challenge. In some cases, maintaining change is not a problem, but at other times it is necessary to implement measures to promote lasting effects of therapy. CBT uses two methods of helping positive therapeutic outcomes continue after therapy; within-therapy interventions and posttherapy interventions. Within-therapy interventions include two strategies, which are teaching patients self-control skills and structuring the environments of patients. Self-control skills are taught so that patients can identify situations that can cause them to regress back to behaviors or cognitions that are maladaptive so that such situations can be avoided. For example, if a discontinued patient who was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder is experiencing similar symptoms as prior to treatment, the patient can use cognitive restructuring or muscle relaxation to combat the symptoms. Structuring patients’ environment can be slightly more difficult but it is also very useful. After therapy is discontinued, patients return to the same environments that once were associated to the psychological condition or caused the patient to develop the maladaptive behaviors or cognitions. By getting the patient to change their
Commonly, ethical violations in psychotherapy have been associated with causing harm to patients and taking away the rights of patients (Spiegler, 2010). CBT has been credited with ensuring therapeutic practices do not harm or deprive patients of their rights. In the case of neglecting or not knowing then treatment should be terminated, CBT is easily monitored by quick self-report questionnaires or assessments to determine when patients have reached a point in their recovery where they no longer need therapy. Also, when aversion therapy is used to desensitize patients from a phobic stimulus, some fear or anxiety may arise but there is sufficient empirical evidence to support that the negative emotion that patients experience in that moment is not …show more content…
Although CBT is greatly effective in initiating change in patients, maintaining change is a separate challenge. In some cases, maintaining change is not a problem, but at other times it is necessary to implement measures to promote lasting effects of therapy. CBT uses two methods of helping positive therapeutic outcomes continue after therapy; within-therapy interventions and posttherapy interventions. Within-therapy interventions include two strategies, which are teaching patients self-control skills and structuring the environments of patients. Self-control skills are taught so that patients can identify situations that can cause them to regress back to behaviors or cognitions that are maladaptive so that such situations can be avoided. For example, if a discontinued patient who was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder is experiencing similar symptoms as prior to treatment, the patient can use cognitive restructuring or muscle relaxation to combat the symptoms. Structuring patients’ environment can be slightly more difficult but it is also very useful. After therapy is discontinued, patients return to the same environments that once were associated to the psychological condition or caused the patient to develop the maladaptive behaviors or cognitions. By getting the patient to change their