Guest Author - Lisa Angelettie M.S.W.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the types of therapies a mental health professional (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychotherapist, clinical social worker) can choose to use as a blueprint for treating a client.

The goal of the cognitive-behavioral approach is to change a person's way of negative thinking and then help the person make some concrete changes in their actions - and to do it in a brief amount of time.

Although this is the goal of every therapist, some other therapy models encourage the therapist to look closely at the childhood and background of the client. This type of inspection can keep someone in therapy for a long time. There is some looking at the background of a client in cognitive therapy, but not as much.

Therapists that use this model describe their approach as an "active" one. They do a lot of the talking in their sessions as they help create a treatment plan for their clients. Sometimes there is homework. Sometime clients may see their therapist regularly for a couple of weeks and then only return to the therapist if there is another "issue" to work on.

*This model of therapy has been proven to be quite effective for :

• Depression and mood swings
• Shyness and social anxiety
• Panic attacks and phobias
• Obsessions and compulsions (OCD and related conditions)
• Chronic anxiety or worry
• Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD and related conditions)
• Eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia) and obesity
• Insomnia and other sleep problems
• Difficulty establishing or staying in relationships
• Problems with marriage or other relationships you're already in
• Job, career or school difficulties
• Feeling “stressed out”
• Insufficient self-esteem (accepting or respecting yourself)
• Inadequate coping skills, or ill-chosen methods of coping
• Passivity, procrastination and “passive aggression”
• Substance abuse, co-dependency and “enabling”
• Trouble keeping feelings such as anger, sadness, fear, guilt, shame, eagerness, excitement, etc., within bounds
• Over-inhibition of feelings or expression

If you are looking for a short-term therapy solution - then look for therapists that use the cognitive-behavioral therapy model in their practice. It's quite popular and quite effective.

*source: www.cognitivetherapy.com