Cognitive Intervention Techniques

Cognitive therapy was developed by Aaron Beck during the 1960s. Cognitive therapy focuses on helping people identify and find concrete ways to solve their problems. The three components of cognitive therapy are education, skill building and problem solving. According to the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, cognitive therapy has been successfully used to treat depression, anxiety, substance abuse, pathological gambling, personality disorders and even physical disorders such as chronic pain. If you work with a cognitive therapist, you can expect to see some specific intervention techniques.

Challenging Cognitive Distortions

• Aaron Beck, and those who came after him, believed that many psychiatric symptoms were caused by cognitive distortions such as all-or-nothing thinking ("if I can't get a date with the girl I like, I might as well just give up"), catastrophizing ("if I flunk this test, it will ruin my life") and overgeneralization ("nobody likes me"). When cognitive therapists hear such distortions, they challenge them and encourage you to adopt a more realistic life view.

Education

• Cognitive therapists play an active role in teaching clients about their problems, as well as new skills and behaviors that will help them overcome those problems. For instance, if you are in substance abuse treatment, you might spend several hours a day learning about the nature of substance abuse and the factors that make you susceptible to relapse. You might also go through social skills training to learn how to interact with other people while sober and life skills training to target areas like paying bills and finding a job.

Brainstorming and Problem Solving

• Problem solving is the crux of cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapists will encourage you to identify problems and then brainstorm possible solutions. The therapist provides reality testing to ensure that the final method you select to solve the problem is reasonable.

Homework

• Cognitive therapy is about learning new life skills to replace dysfunctional old ones. In order to learn new skills, you must practice, so your therapist will often send you home with an assignment. For instance, if you have been learning more productive ways to interact with your spouse, your therapist might challenge you to try these new behaviors for a week and write down the results in a notebook. In the next therapy session, you would discuss the results of the homework and be given a new assignment.