Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy in which the therapist utilizes techniques to help to change the mindset and thinking pattern of the client or patient to reduce psychological symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, addictions and other types of mental illness. The underlying principle is that psychological problems are at least in part due to thought processes which are maladaptive or otherwise unhealthy and that these thought patterns are learned behaviors which can subsequently be unlearned through therapy.
Once these faulty thought processes are unlearned, they can be replaced with new skills, thought processes and more effective coping mechanisms to use instead (Society of Clinical Psychology, 2017). Some challenges that present in this type of therapy are the ability to change someone’s mindset from a negative one to a positive one. When attempting to use the techniques in a group setting the level of difficulty is increased dramatically. Even when you have a group of people who share a common diagnosis, such as anxiety, there are still many unique contributing factors to each person’s specific symptoms and manifestations of those symptoms.
Most group CBT success has been seen in the treatment of depression and anxiety as group participants can practice empathy towards others and provide their own personal experiences with symptoms which others in the group can relate (Thimm, 2014). Some difficulty does lie in the fact that there are differing cultural, religious and socioeconomic views and beliefs that further impact each person’s cognition, outlook and overall emotional functioning and will impact the therapeutic processes. Understanding how these things can impact the therapeutic processes for each person will help improve the outcome of therapy, but in a group setting it will be harder to modify therapy in a way to fit every participant in the group.
Nothing in psychotherapy is a one size fits all that works equally for every patient and attempting to gain the same results with multiple people with one standard technique is not a realistic expectation. Each person in a group therapy session will also have different perspectives and interpretation of their thoughts, emotions and the ramifications of those things on their current symptoms. Group therapy participants may also drop out of their sessions if they feel they are not effective and the change in group dynamics when someone stops coming to group can negatively impact the remaining participants (Thimm & Liss, 2014).
There are some benefits to group CBT sessions such as the ability to role play these newly learned CBT techniques and being able to practice things such as empathy (Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, 2018). Due to these challenges, it may be more effective to utilize individual CBT sessions over group CBT settings to reduce potential setbacks in the therapeutic processes and have the most positive impact on the thought of the patient (Guo, et al, 2021).
Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. (2018, June 7). CBT for couples. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZH196rOGscLinks to an external site.
Guo, T., Su, J., Hu, J., Aalberg, M., Zhu, Y., Teng, T., and Zhou, X. (2021). Individual vs. Group Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Anxiety Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Retrieved from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.674267/full.
Society of Clinical Psychology. (2017). What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and- families/cognitive-behavioral.
Thimm J & Liss A. (2014). Effectiveness of cognitive behavioral group therapy for depression in routine practice. BMC Psychiatry. 14(292). Retrieved from: https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-014-0292-x.
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