Proponents of cognitive therapy view all events are inherently neutral. A person holds a belief about an event, and out of that belief labels the event as either good or bad. Negative or irrational beliefs lead to bad feelings such as depression, anxiety or anger. Therapeutic communication in cognitive therapy encourages clients to discard irrational beliefs, replacing these with reality-based or rational beliefs, to feel better.
Cognitive DIstortions
Therapists practicing cognitive therapy educate their clients on disordered patterns of thinking known as cognitive distortions. Making arbitrary inferences, focusing on only one aspect of a situation, overgeneralizing, minimizing or objectifying are all errors of thinking causing a person to hold irrational beliefs. Therapists encourage clients to examine these beliefs, exploring alternative explanations.
Paraphrasing
Therapists demonstrate they are listening to their clients by repeating back one or two words to summarize what the client has said. Paraphrasing serves an additional purpose in cognitive therapy, which is to emphasize distorted beliefs to the client. A therapist would say, for example, "No one has ever been faithful to you?," to both summarize what his client is saying and to get her to examine this extreme, likely untrue statement.
Asking Questions
Cognitive therapy uses the inductive method, which involves asking the client a series of questions to help him sort through irrational beliefs. If the client is talking about his belief that all women have been unfaithful to him, for example, the therapist might say, "Tell me about when you first got the feeling women were unfaithful to you," to have the client begin to explore this irrational belief.
Confrontation
Central to cognitive therapy is the technique of confrontation. The therapist challenges irrational client beliefs by expressing doubt that these beliefs are true, challenging the client and discussing more rational thought processes. If the client believes all women have been unfaithful to him, for example, the therapist would ask what benefit the client is getting from holding onto that belief, if the belief has been true 100 percent of the time and, even if this belief has been true in the past, what evidence the client has that his future will be the same.
