Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive psychotherapy focuses on identifying and changing negative thinking patterns. Often people with clinical depression make negative assumptions about their world. These assumptions lead them to have negative thoughts about themselves, their situation, and their future (cognitive triad). These negative thoughts create depressive feelings.

Since thoughts and feelings are believed to be linked together, the way you think can affect how you feel. Since thoughts sometimes happen so quickly, people often don't realize what they are thinking in certain situations. What they notice is how they feel. Thus, cognitive psychotherapists view these thoughts as "automatic." They believe that the way to change these negative feelings is to change the thoughts that occur in stressful situations.

For example, if you were placed in front of hundreds of people to give a talk, you may be scared to death and your stomach may do somersaults. You may only notice that you feel nervous and not realize you thought, "I 'm going to mess up and everyone 's going to laugh!" One way to feel better in this situation is to change how you think about public speaking. A cognitive psychotherapist would help you identify and your specific thoughts and assumptions about giving a speech.

Cognitive psychotherapists are actively involved and focus on specific problems in the present. Cognitive therapists teach depressed people how to examine and recognize negative thinking patterns and negative automatic thoughts. By identifying these thought distortions, depressed patients can learn how to modify them and thus alter their depressed mood. Patients often keep a log of their thoughts and feelings that they use with their therapist to identify dysfunctional thinking patterns. Patients practice their new cognitive strategies in real life, discuss the outcomes with their therapist, and modify their approaches. Cognitive psychotherapy is usually brief; treatment often lasts for 10 to 20 sessions.

Many therapists classify themselves as Cognitive-Behavioral therapists. They combine behavior therapy techniques, such as relaxation training, and cognitive techniques, such as thought restructuring.