Summary
Functional therapy is prevalent in contemporary healthcare and public health studies and practices. Among these therapy strategies, cognitive behavioral therapy is the subject of this summary, presenting the concept of therapy as an integral part of mental wellness mitigation. Accordingly, Surmai and Duff (2022) define cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a mechanism that empowers research-based mechanism that supports the empowerment of individual awareness of personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences. The mechanism emphasizes self-restoration by recognizing their challenges and applying positive mental attitudes. Self-efficacy and self-talk promote a person’s capacity to motivate themselves and mentally create an emotional environment facilitating resilience and coping with adversity (Surmai & Duff, 2022). Thus, the approach is flexible and adjustable to individual challenges, influencing their mental wellness as the therapist practices behavior modification of a patient from negative to positive emotional mindsets.
Therapy Application for Illness Prevention, Health Promotion, and Restoration
Cognitive behavioral therapy has effectively managed multiple illnesses or restoration programs. Surmai and Duff (2022) gave a case for a more recent challenge with the Covid-19 pandemic of increasing depression. Additionally, they highlighted that the pandemic instigated high mental health morbidity with the associated social isolation, financial instability, and fear of the spreading virus. The therapy enhances health promotion by empowering the public in desensitizing negative thoughts and influencing change in emotional and physical resilience to the challenge (Surmai & Duff, 2022). Moreover, the approach is posited to enhance sleeping patterns and fatigue managing insomnia (Rodriguez et al., 2022). On the other hand, the approach is justified in preventing relapse of depression and anxiety.
Promoting Self-Wellness: Techniques and Function
Therapy is applied to promote health in communities enhancing the health status of the public. Consequently, Surmai and Duff (2022) presented Burn’s triple-column technique as an effective approach to influencing individual emotional and behavioral tendencies. The approach focuses on the self-wellness outcomes with rational response application for self-monitoring as an effective mechanism to mitigate cognitive distortions and negative thinking. The technique perceives negative thoughts observed in an individual as negative distortions. Concurrently, a client is guided to employ rational responses while recording the distortions in a self-help guidebook. Therefore, Surmi and Duff (2022) hypothesized that the response is guided to reframe the cognitive thoughts rather than replacing them, emphasizing transforming them into constructive reflections. As such, the client acknowledges adversities, records them, and consecutively establishes rational conclusions about their circumstance. It allows mental preparation and wellness that allows them to cope with challenges.
Working with Patients Who Use Functional Medicine and Safeguard Rights
Safeguarding patient rights in choosing therapy techniques is an essential function of a therapist. As such, a therapist can safeguard patient autonomy by allowing a framework that facilitates patient suggestions to build patient trust (Rodriguez et al., 2022). The approach illustrates a mechanism to incorporate the patient’s acknowledgment of the treatment plan, and the therapist can incorporate their suggestions and needs. Ostacher (2019) highlight the necessity of protecting patient rights and preventing unethical violations of their autonomy to choose treatment options. Therefore, the application of CBT should be conscious of the patient’s needs and exercise caution in the techniques employed supporting involvement in decision-making.
Limitations of this therapy
Implementing the CBT treatment framework has been criticized in part and highlighted as having limitations. Among these criticisms is categorizing the care as a personalized treatment approach identified as an advantage previously. However, CBT is subjectively limited due to the variations as it lacks a standardized framework that can offer a case benchmark for other disorders. Thus, the approach is limited to a particular patient and cannot be replicated for other patients. According to Dobson and Dobson (2018), CBT requires significant dedication by the patient to meet the framework and schedule provided by the therapist. They argued that the approach had been challenged in instances where the client missed sessions or expressed unresponsiveness to tasks assigned by the therapists. Therefore, the assumption is that the technique depends on adherence to the regiment assigned, which patient choices may undermine. Moreover, therapists have a role in developing personalized treatment plans; thus, limitations may occur when the therapist duplicates treatment regimens (Dobson & Dobson, 2018). Hence, in undertaking CBT, a therapist is expected to be knowledgeable and exercise integrity to develop the most appropriate guide for clients, and clients should commit to the instructions given.
Supplementary Information
On the other hand, CBT is also reinforced by specific behavioral practices. Among the supplements is the application of relaxation strategies that support releasing physical tension beyond mental wellness. It involves deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. Moreover, the approach has been integrated into virtual therapy programs expanding access to health services (Popa et al., 2022). The approach was especially essential during the Covid pandemic, influencing remote public health management as CBT supported mental resilience and coping against the pandemic. Conclusively, therapy is presented as an intricate field that provides significant alternatives to managing physical health and lifestyles.
References
Dobson, D., & Dobson, K. S. (2018). Evidence-Based Practice of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.
Ostacher, M. J. (2019). Ethical Issues in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Bipolar Disorders. FOCUS, 17(3), 265–268. Web.
Popa, C. O., Sava, F. A., Muresan, S., Schenk, A., Cojocaru, C. M., Muntean, L. M., & Olah, P. (2022). Standard CBT versus integrative and multimodal CBT assisted by virtual-reality for generalized anxiety disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. Web.
Rodriguez, K. A. P., Salas, R. M. E., & Schneider, L. (2022). Insomnia. Neurologic Clinics. Web.
Surmai, M., & Duff, E. (2022). Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: A Strategy to Address Pandemic-Induced Anxiety. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 18(1), 36–39. Web.