Finding a Successful Cognitive Therapist
The problem with cognitive therapy is the Therapy part. When someone requires cognitive therapy, how can you be certain that the counselor and the curriculum he/she uses is able to adjust thinking errors and self-defeating conduct? There are a myriad of therapists out there each with their own explanations and solutions. Few of them, if any, are evidence based with confirmation that the program they're using is right and helpful.
Virtually every counseling program could state that it is cognitive therapy, yet very little, if any, could show that it works. In a sense cognitive therapy is misnamed. The meaning of "therapy" is the treatment of illness or disability. The use of cognitive therapy in mental illness is almost completely in vain since you cannot use cognitive restructuring training on someone who is not cognitive. The same holds true to children. Cognitive therapy is ineffective on children for an identical reason, because they aren't yet cognitive.
The problem with using therapists to facilitate cognitive therapy programs is that the majority of therapists are emotionally sick themselves and many live in the box of self-deception. That is, they dont know that they are ill and hence they give their problems (bad beliefs) to their clients. Multitudes of people go to psycho therapists sessions for many years at a great cost, however, they never get better, in fact, several become worse than they were before. In spite of all that skilled cognitive life skills counselors who have good proof based curriculum can help people in creating lasting changes in only hours as opposed to days, months and years. This is not to imply that every therapist is ineffective. The most influential counselors/therapists have a positive way of being. People alter their lives because of truth, not counseling methods. The truth resonates at a frequency that can cut the veil of self-imposed false beliefs and allow people to remove years of faulty programing. Compare cognitive restructuring life skills VS a clinical style of cognitive therapy. Look for evidence based cognitive restructuring programs that will provide proof that their curriculum and approach works. Find authors and organizations that have had years and years of experience in creating and running groups. There isn't a book out there that can replace tangible hands-on experience.
About the Author: Lifeskills Counselor, Larry Lloyd, is the founder of the American Community Corrections Institute (ACCI)) which offers evidence-based cognitive restructuring curriculum to reduce crime.
More articles by echo-promotions
Print Article | Download PDF | 114 views | May 08 2007
|
|
