Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

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What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy? I have read about it being a tool for emotional management. How does it work . . . and does it work? Do you have to see a professional to get it, or, as a parent, can I read up about it and do this with my child?

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a kind of therapy that predisposes that your thoughts are the cause of your emotion and behavior.

The goal of this therapy is to correct cognitive errors, and mis-adjusted patterns of thought to correct behavior and emotions.

An example of such a cognitive error would be all-or nothing thinking. It's frequently observed in depressed patients. They cognitively (using their thoughts) divide the world in either good or bad, there's no middle here. An example of such a thought would be "I'm worthless"


Let me give you an example in the treatment of depression. For example a depressed person would write down all of his thoughts with cognitive errors in them and write up a rational response to them, and the diminishment of affect after the rational response.
For example
I'm worthless- I'm not worthless, there's a lot of ways I contribute to society

Of course it has to be your own response here.



Cognitive therapy is scientifcally proven to be effective for various mood disorders.


So in the gist cognitive therapy aims at correcting self-defeating patterns of thought and replacing them with more productive ones.

So generally the patient has to explore his own patterns of thoughts, and correct them.


Generally this is the dominat form of therapy administered in various self help books

Books like:
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Self-Coachi ... 621&sr=8-1

This book for example is nothing more as a version of cognitive behavioral therapy, for self improvement


A good self help- cognitive behavioral therapy for depressed individuals is found in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Ther ... 681&sr=1-1

I'm actually curious about the answer to your question. I know that there are plenty of self-help books with Cognitive Behavior Therapy ideas. I haven't come across any for parents helping children, but, then, I haven't looked. I would imagine there's some resources. Even if a child is in therapy, I would think that the parents being involved and informed would be important too.

My question about CBT arose from some brief information I read on Tony Attwood's work with Aspergers. Since my initial posting I have found some of his books on the internet - one specifically uses CBT to deal with anger, and the other adresses anxiety (both seem to be specific to children with AS). I can't seem to hit on information that describes much detail of the "process" of CBT. I am guessing that, since this is specific to AS and also with Tony Attwood being a key professional/lecturer associated with AS, there must be some parents out there who are familiar with what CBT is and have even tried it.

OK! Holy Crap (can I say that?). Anyways, my husband JUST ASKED THAT QUESTION, right now as I typed into this forum. I told him that I doubt CBT can be used for Aspergers. We will look up Tony Attwood. I know what CBT is due to my professional background. I personally like it more than any other therapy. I haven't known about CBT work related to Aspergers until now. THANK YOU. What a coincidence!

I hope some adults can share some info as well.

Ah... so you are looking for a specific form of CBT.

What an interesting thread. I hope I'm not being repeating what other people have already said, and but it may be that CBT can be used for Aspergers if you look at in this way:
People sometimes adopt self-rules that they use to govern their behaviour, but which don't serve any useful purpose and can be self-defeating. These self-rules (which are just thougts) tell people what they 'should' do even if that behaviour isn't helpful or isn't what they really want to do.
The aim of CBT is to replace these 'problem' self-rules with helpful rules, so that someone is no longer compelled to act in a certain way because of these destructive self-imposed rules.
The procedures used in CBT include self-instruction and using problem-solving to work towards specific goals.

I haven't got any personal experience with CBT but I'd be really interested in an example of a specific behaviour that somebody thinks might be helped by CBT.

Last edited by Emen on 05 Aug 2008, 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My husband replays in his head over and over again a specific social situation. He thinks about ways he should have said something or what he could have done differently. He then gets anxiety, which just causes him to think about the situation some more. A downward spiral.

So, I think CBT could help him in this aspect.

CBT has helped my AS son tremendously!..........i think alot depends on what level of functioning you're at- my son is at a level where he can finally question his own negative assumptions.

So, how does the CBT process work? Someone posted about how the process works for depression, but I would be interested in how it works with AS traits that are wider than depression? What areas do you see improvement in?

my son suffers from depression as well as AS.........son has done CBT as part of his therapeutic day school. he goes both individually and in group sessions several times a week.
the theory of challenging false beliefs is taught the same as with NTs as it is with AS- the exception being that son has taken longer to be comfortable challenging his false beliefs....

I've been receiving CBT for almost 2 years now. It's helped with the bad "mental habits" but I've had stalemates with the more organic sources of my mood disorder and "moving onward". It's possible that it's my therapist that has held me back in some of those cases rather than a general problem with CBT.
I personally recommend it for autistics.

2 of my 3 sons have Asperger's - they are 10 and 8 years old.

They have both undergone CBT at an autism/asperger's clinic with fantastic results.

Here is an article from my website with more information.

http://www.smelena.com/article_emotion_management.php

Helen

Thanks, Helen. That is funny because that article on your website is where I read about CBT (there was a link from G Bollards website on IEPs). If you have the time could you post or PM about the process of CBT and what it helps with in relation to AS? Thanks.

To explain the process my boys have undergone in details would take me hours and hours (a book I think).

They've both had approximately 20 + sessions with a psychologist at an Autism/Asperger's specialist clinic with 'homework' for me and the boys. The Special Ed teacher is also involved with their 'homework'.

An extremely brief overview ...

First they started with their happy/sad/angry/worried thermometers. They filled out each emotion thermometer from 1 to 10. They then practiced taking their 'emotional' temperature at home. This step took a couple of months.

Then the kids went through steps of what to do to deal with these emotions and at what stage. For example, if you are 10 out of 10 angry, relaxation isn't going to work. Again, weeks of work.

The kids also went through a long process of identifying 'poisonous thoughts' and replacing them. For example 'I am dumb and stupid' was replaced with 'I think differently to others'.

I recommend you buy one of Tony Attwood's books about CBT - he's got one for anxiety and one for anger.

Regards
Helen

Thanks for that, Helen. That helps me get a better picture of how it works. Checked out your youtube videos (nice dancing!) - hadn't even thought to look for Aspergers videos on there. Must have a squiz at some of the others when I get a chance.