Question: Does Cognitive Behavior Therapy Include Insight?

Answer: Insight is always a part of cognitive therapy -- an important part, but not an end in itself. We help patients gain insight into why they have unhelpful or upsetting reactions. Their emotions and behavior make sense once they understand how they perceived a given situation. And the characteristic themes in their perceptions (represented by their automatic thoughts) make sense once they understand their underlying beliefs. This insight alone, however, is not sufficient for most patients to recover from their psychiatric disorder or improve their psychological functioning. They need to solve problems and change their thinking and behavior to bring about enduring change in their mood and functioning. From the first session, we help patients learn how to identify and evaluate their distorted or dysfunctional thinking, a process which results in improvements in how they feel and what they do. Many patients also benefit from learning to adopt a different relationship with their thoughts (as described in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness); instead of evaluating their cognitions, they note them non-judgmentally and focus their attention elsewhere. In the next part of treatment, we add an emphasis on helping patients gain insight at a deeper level as they identify and modify their dysfunctional beliefs -- their basic understanding about themselves (e.g., I'm helpless/vulnerable/incapable/defective/unlovable/worthless), their worlds (e.g., the world is dang...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news