Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy involves a goal-oriented psychiatric treatment method that helps patients to change their behavior and thoughts to help solve the mental health issue they experience. Based on the analysis presented in the case study, the strengths weakness and challenges of Cognitive Behavioral therapy are as follows.
Strengths
CBT offers a short-term treatment session that focuses on long-term behavioral changes. The CBT treatment helps individuals to correct underlying behavioral problems by examining their thoughts and cognitive process. CBT helps promote long term behavioral changes as the human cognitive process plays a vital role in influencing behavior. In the case study, Tamara’s negative thoughts about mental illnesses made her experience mental health anxiety. However, CBT treatment helped to eradicate negative thinking through treatment methods such as cognitive restructuring. The CBT treatments offer behavioral changes that the patient can sustain in the long run through practice.
CBT model is well structure, instructive, allowing research and testing. Psychologists can easily confirm the correlations between cognitive abilities and behavior through experimental studies. For instance, Tamara suffered mental health anxiety, and the early stages of treatment revealed that exposure to stimuli, such as information on mental illness, would trigger her anxiety.
The Weaknesses
CBT depends on the patient’s willingness to make changes placing treatment in the patient’s hands. Cognitive behavioral therapy is only useful when the patient is willing and ready to engage with the psychiatrist. The patient must openly share thoughts and feelings of facing mental health issues to develop solutions under the CBT approaches. However, it may be challenging for some patients to share information or carry out internal self-analysis, which may hinder the treatment process. In the case study, the treatment worked because Tamara was willing to work with the psychiatrist to identify the thoughts creating her mental health anxiety. She also worked towards making behavioral changes by actively participating in behavioral experiments.
CBT follows a well-organized structure, and this may not offer a suitable method for providing treatment for individuals who face complex mental health problems and personality disorders. It may also be difficult for patients with learning disabilities and personality problems to engage in self-analysis process. In the case study, treatment was successful because Tamara did not face complex mental health issues apart from panic attacks; it was easier for her to receive treatment from CBT sessions effectively.
Limitations of CBT
CBT is most effective in conducting therapy for older teenagers and adults and may not work as effectively among young children and teenagers as they may not have the capacity to carry out self-analysis effectively. In the case study, the treatment was successful partly because Tamara was an adult; thus, she could effectively conduct self-analysis to determine the cause of her behavioral problems.
CBT does not address broader mental health issues and external issues such as family system, history, and emotional problems that may result in the reoccurrence of behavior unlearned by the patient. Given that treatment depends on the individual’s capacity to change, it does not guarantee long term effects as one may revert to the old ways creating another mental health cycle. Although Tamara mentions her family’s negative views on mental health and a history of anxiety problems, the treatment does not consider the information within the treatment process. Therefore, there is the possibility that in the future, Tamara may once again develop mental health anxiety as she faces underlying issues that are unsolved.