Angelo Peer 1
In the “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety and Depression (Session 1 of 6)” video, Dr. Wenzel utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy to assist a 24-year-old man grappling with anxiety and mild depression, which are impacting his academic performance and workplace behavior. The foundational methods of cognitive behavioral therapy demonstrated in this video involve collaborative efforts to identify instances where he employs avoidance as a coping strategy in his studies and professional life. Dr. Wenzel then assigns the task of maintaining a thought journal for discussion in their subsequent meeting. The session concludes with the establishment of therapy goals. This approach proves highly effective over several sessions, aiding the client in recognizing habitual patterns contributing to his anxiety and depression, with awareness being the pivotal step towards transformation.
In “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety and Depression (Session 3 of 6),” Dr. Wenzel and the same client proceed to their third session, where the client reflects on his achievements in managing anxiety. Dr. Wenzel aids in exploring deeper thoughts and beliefs influencing his behavior. They review his thought record and success log, taking a much deeper look into his background as a first-gen college student and how that stress impacts his anxiety. In this session you can see more evolving self-reflection, the client’s increasing confidence, and reduced tendency to self implode. Both videos show how effective (CBT) can be in just a few sessions, especially with the younger patient.
Contrary to being limited or more effective solely with younger adults, older adults have demonstrated comparable improvements when treated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for conditions like anxiety, OCD, and depression. This is significant, as CBT presents a viable alternative for older adults who frequently encounter heightened side effects and complications from psychiatric medications (Pomerleau et al., 2023). I found this to be interesting since the majority of the clients in the module videos are younger.
The ideal duration and frequency of cognitive therapy sessions to achieve effectiveness at conclusion and during extended follow-up are discussed in the text. General guidelines suggest that 15 to 25 sessions, each spanning 50 minutes and typically conducted weekly, are efficacious. Nonetheless, clients with more severe depression might necessitate bi-weekly meetings initially for 4 to 5 weeks. To avert an abrupt cessation of therapy, a gradual reduction in session frequency is recommended, with the last few sessions occurring bi-weekly. Post-therapy, certain clients may benefit from sporadic additional ‘booster’ sessions (Barlow, 2021, p. 263).
The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) sessions showcased in the videos and detailed in the text focus on a therapeutic evolution of sorts. Starting with the recognition of detrimental behaviors, the therapy progresses towards fostering self-awareness and coping mechanisms. This illustrates CBT’s capacity to effectively cater to the unique needs of each client over a typical span of 15 to 25 sessions, adapting the approach based on the severity of the issues and the progress achieved.
Barlow, D. H. (2021). Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders: A Step-by-Step Treatment Manual (6th ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Pomerleau, V., Sekhon, H., Bajsarowicz, P., Demoustier, A., Rej, S., & Myhr, G. (2023). Do older adults respond to cognitive behavioral therapy as well as younger adults? An analysis of a large, multi-diagnostic, real-world sample. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 38(6).
Leah Peer 2
This week’s therapy sessions were interesting to watch because it was seeing the transformation of one patient within a three-week gap. Before diving into that, let’s remember what Cognitive-Behavioral therapy is. CBT has the distinct therapeutic style of asking questions, holding to an agenda and having patients and therapist work together to achieve new outlooks on situations that cause anxiety and depression (Barlow, 2021). The text also states that through the course of sessions in CBT, the sessions themselves do not change, but the content in each session does change drastically (Barlow). Viewing these two videos, you can see this played out. The first session, the therapist set out a course of action, allowed the patient to express his struggles and educated him on thought-processing, automatic thoughts and changing those thoughts when they become overwhelming (American Psychological Association, 2016 (session 1 of 6). This same flow of the session was seen in the second video, where the session was three weeks later, but the discussions were vastly different. Rather than talking about what is wrong with his situation, the patient was talking positively about his future and facing those things that were causing procrastination and anxiety as the therapist asked more questions to engage the patient to dig deeper into those thoughts and feelings (American Psychological Association, 2016 (session 3 of 6).
The therapist in these two sessions helped the patient use behavioral techniques to modify his automatic thoughts (Barlow). The therapist explored core beliefs during the first session, and getting the patient to open up about events and circumstances that led to avoidance behaviors he was now facing. During the third session, those core beliefs were still being challenged but the patient was more positive on the outlook of his future. It really was great seeing the change from three weeks with a patient that was actively doing the homework assignments at home, keeping track of his thoughts and documenting successful moments he was experiencing. The second video, the therapist began shifting the focus from particular problems he was facing to the overall schema the patient had for himself, which is seen as a progression of session content (Barlow).
As mentioned, the therapist gave homework assignments the first week to the patient- logging automatic thoughts and a success log. By the third session, the homework was still there and needing to be done weekly, but the task of it for the patient didn’t seem so daunting. It was important that the therapist reviewed the patient’s homework so he knew what he was doing on his own was important to the session (Barlow). Because this patient was severely depressed in the first video, having homework was an anxiety trigger for him, he wasn’t sure when he would have time to do it and where he would keep his logs so others would not see. By the third session the patient was doing much better with time management and the anxiety about his logs subsided greatly. This therapist kept to the textbook style of these sessions and it proved to be a positive outcome.
American Psychological Association. (2016). Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and depression (session 1 of 6) [Video]. APA PsycTherapy.
to an external site.
American Psychological Association. (2016). Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and depression (session 3 of 6) [Video]. APA PsycTherapy.
to an external site.
David, H. B. (2021).
Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders- A step-by-step treatment manual (6th ed., pp. 29, 35). The Guilford Press.
