Treatment Approaches:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has long been considered the “gold standard” in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and trauma/PTSD – plus a host of other mental health diagnoses.
In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) individuals and therapists work together to explore the ways a person’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected.
CBT can help you learn to stop, challenge, and change negative thoughts and turn them into positive self-talk.
What is CBT?
CBT is actually a big umbrella that includes many different therapies that all work to help change thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Some of the therapies under the CBT umbrella include:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
- Cognitive Therapy (CT)
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
- Exposure Therapy
- Systematic Desensitization
- Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
TF-CBT was originally developed to treat PTSD in children who had been sexually abused. Today we know that TF-CBT is effective for children who have experienced many different types of trauma as well as combinations of trauma. TF-CBT recognizes that survivors of trauma experience symptoms of anxiety and depression, in addition to trauma-specific symptoms such as self-blame, safety concerns, and difficulty trusting others and the world in general.
In accordance with a trauma-informed and strengths-based perspective, TF-CBT also works to help children fit the trauma(s) into their lives in such a way that they do not identify themselves as a “victim.”
The main components of TF-CBT include:
- Helping kids learn more about trauma and PTSD
- Learning about emotions and how to express and manage them appropriately
- Individually tailored stress-management skills
- Beginning to explore and understand the relationships between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
- Creating a trauma narrative: A gradual exposure therapeutic process where children work with their therapist to “tell the story” of their trauma
- Identifying and challenging negative thoughts and replacing them with healthier ones
- Learning body safety skills and how to identify and respond to unsafe situations
- A parental treatment component
Parent Component of TF-CBT
Parents are an important part of their children’s TF-CBT treatment. When a child or teen works through TF-CBT, their parent(s) are also seen by the therapist. In separate, parents-only sessions, parents work through therapy modules that parallel those the child receives, with an added focus on parenting skills
