Therapy that has been crafted to treat various mental disorders is referred to as behavioral therapy. People tend to form self-destructive and unhealthy lifestyle disorders due to mental disturbance, stress, and pressure. This therapy identifies such symptoms among the people and tries to find out their cure. The basic ideas behind this therapy are that all behaviors are learned through gradual acceptance and the unhealthy behaviors can be changed through practice and counseling. The treatment entirely focusses on the current problem at hand and devises methodologies to change them through cognition development.
In what all cases have behavioral therapy proven out to be helpful?
Mostly the people who suffer from following conditions tend to seek help from behavioral therapy:
- Anxiety
- Anger
- panic disorders
- depression
- frustration
- bipolar disorder
- panic disorder
- obsessive-compulsive disorder
- self-harm
Types of behavioral therapy:
- Cognitive behavioral play therapy:
This therapy is used in the case of children. The therapists allow the children to play in their comfort zone and watch their behaviors while playing. They try to gain insight into their behavior while letting the children play. Their behavior is identified and monitored for their uncomfortable zones such as what makes the child uncomfortable to express or handle. They are given simple tasks such as drawing some paintings, creating scenes in the sandbox, doodling on the writing boards etc. The parents are also taught by the therapists on how to help their children by interpreting their behavior and improving the level of communication with their children. The cognition has to be improved in their abilities to express themselves freely with the people they trust.
- Aversion therapy:
The therapy used to use the people who are affected by substance abuse or bad habit formations such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, smoking etc. People are taught to associate an unhealthy stimulus with a very unhealthy and unpleasant stimulus which may even cause discomfort to the patient. The mind itself would want to leave anything which is unhealthy and unpleasant as soon as the stimulus is generated by approaching the substance which has to be averted.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy:
Our cognition abilities need to be improved if we want changes and improvement in a regular habit. This therapy combines behavioral therapy with the cognition therapy. The treatment refers to someone’s mental processes such as their thoughts, beliefs, and actions that have a direct influence on one’s day to day behaviors. The conversations, routines, and checkups are planned in such ways that lead to rigorous counseling of the person. The problem at hand is addressed first so that mind gets free of the current problems and gets into the practice of solving the problems on its own. This, in fact, is the far-sighted aim in this therapy to train the mind to function in such a way so that it can experience changes in behaviors and thinking abilities. The unhealthy habits and thoughts are sidelined to attain a healthy routine lifestyle. Set up an appointment with a San Diego Psychiatrist to learn how you get the best from CBT.
Cognition plays a significant role in changing our behavior and life skills to a great extent. Behavioral therapy can be used in the case of children as well as adults who are seeking some serious lifestyle changes. The thoughts are given a positive direction to flow so that we can extract all the negativity out of our way.