What is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy? And How Does It Differ From Talk Therapy?

There is a lot of confusion about what the difference between cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and talk therapy is.

Although both involve talking, one is very different from the other.

It is important to know these differences when deciding if CBT is right for you.

What is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?

CBT is a treatment modality introduced by Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist, in the 1960s. It is actually a combination of two different strategies: behavioral therapy and also psychotherapy.

The objective of CBT is to approach therapy as a problem-solving exercise. When you work with a therapist who employs CBT, you are trying to understand your thinking and behavioral patterns. Specifically, addressing cognitive issues, such as your personal beliefs, your thoughts, and your attitude.

What makes CBT a powerful treatment tool is that it addresses core issues that you hold about yourself.

Reaching Back to Childhood with CBT

When delving into perceptions of yourself often the search reaches back towards childhood. The early years are an important beginning to understand the world and your place in it.

How you interact with your environment and other people has lasting effects well into adulthood. This includes how you interacted with your parents, and what you learned about yourself through them.

The Behavioral Approach to CBT

Besides the cognitive aspect of CBT, it’s important to understand the behavioral component when asking, “What is cognitive-behavioral therapy?”

For example, let us say that you struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). If you touch something that you think is “dirty,” like a doorknob in a public building, you feel anxious. To calm the anxiety, you wash your hands. This is seen as rewarding yourself by soothing the anxiety.

Yet, OCD creates many situations for you that are uncomfortable on almost a daily basis. Over time, OCD begins to interfere in your life making it hard to continue satisfying the compulsions.

In behavioral therapy, you attempt to undo this behavior through coaching and counseling. The objective is that, in the future, you will have fewer OCD-related incidents, or even none at all.

CBT: A Powerful Combination

As you see, addressing cognitive issues along with behavioral treatment is a powerful combination.

On the one hand, you are working with a therapist to understand your thinking and perceptions about yourself. But then, the behavior component takes that insight and transforms it into action in order to achieve real change.

What is Talk Therapy?

Talk therapy is simply when you, as a patient, express yourself to your therapist. This is where you and your therapist have a conversation with each other in the therapist’s office.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with talk therapy and it is very useful in its own right. Oftentimes people need to get things off their chest and have a safe place to do so. However, talk therapy by itself may not be enough to address or resolve an issue fully.

The Difference Between CBT and Talk Therapy

What makes CBT useful and successful is that it creates a process for real change. Talking and expressing yourself is important. Yet, talk therapy doesn’t have the added components of creating understanding or instilling change. After all, the root word of cognitive is derived from the Latin word “cognoscere,” which means “to recognize.”

You can talk all day to anybody and not truly recognize or understand:

Patterns of behavior
Your role in creating those patterns
How your life story contributes to those patterns
In what ways your actions affect others

Plus, with CBT, both you and your therapist create a pathway towards change.

So, when you ask, “What is cognitive-behavioral therapy?”, understand that it is more than talking to a therapist. Rather, CBT is a process that can make a real difference for whatever issues you are struggling with.

Questions, Concerns, Thoughts?

I invite you to call me for a free 15 – minute phone consultation to discuss your specific needs and to answer any questions you have about anxiety, treatment and my practice. Please visit my website @ www.theanxietydocseattle.com or call me directly @ (206) 745-4933.