Applying CBT: COU101 Theories in Counselling Essay

This essay delves into the application of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in treating stress, anxiety, and alcohol abuse. It begins by defining stress and anxiety, highlighting their impact on individuals, and introducing CBT as a suitable therapeutic approach. The essay then traces the historical origins and evolution of CBT, emphasizing its roots in behavioral therapy and its development into a comprehensive approach. It outlines the key components of CBT, including the importance of a collaborative therapeutic relationship, ethical considerations like confidentiality, and the three stages of CBT: identifying negative thoughts, evaluating anxiety-provoking thoughts, and replacing them with realistic thoughts. The essay applies CBT to a case study, detailing the strategies used to help a patient manage stress, anxiety, and reduce alcohol consumption, including the use of relaxation exercises and cognitive restructuring techniques. The essay concludes by summarizing the benefits of CBT, such as improved coping skills and a reduced reliance on unhealthy habits, and recommends a treatment plan involving 10 to 12 sessions. It emphasizes the potential for long-term recovery and the importance of ongoing assessment and homework assignments.

Running head: CBT 0
cognitive behavioural therapy
Essay
DECEMBER 31, 2019

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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Most individuals experience the issues of stress and anxiety throughout their lifespan.
Stress is any requirement placed on an individual’s brain or physical body. Individuals are
able to report when feeling stressed once multiple opposing demands are positioned on them.
The sensation of being stressed can be prompted by an incident that makes a person feel
unsatisfied or nervous (McCaul et al., 2017). Other mental health issue termed Anxiety is the
feeling of distress, worry, or nervousness. It can also result from a reaction to stress, or it can
happen in individuals who are incapable to identify important stressors in their lifespan.
Individuals with stress and anxiety related issues often develop unhealthy habits like alcohol
consumption, unhealthy food intake, etc. in this particular essay the application of a
counselling theory will be applied to recover a patient with stress and anxiety (Seo et al.,
2017).
Behavioural cognitive therapy is the most suitable therapy that can eb applied in case
of Tom as he has developed stress and anxiety, and started drinking alcohol. It has reported
by different researchers and experts that CBT is the best therapy top achieve recovery in
stress and anxiety. It has been also identified to be effective in alcoholism and drug addiction
(Hofmann et al., 2012).
Cognitive behavioural therapy is a kind of psychotherapeutic treatment that assists the
patient to understand the thoughts and emotions that affect their behaviour. It was proposed
by Dr. Aaron T. in 1960s. Two of the initial forms of Cognitive behavioural Therapy were
the Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), introduced by Albert Ellis in year of 1950s
(De Castella ert al., 2015). By the late 1970s different psychologists clearly understood that
CBT was not a fad, but it has its significance in treating people. The evolution if this therapy
took place in three different stages the behaviour therapy merged in the independent however

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parallel developments in the US and UK, between the years1950 to 1970 was its second
stage, and in the late 1980s the merging of the behaviours and cognitive therapy into the CBT
happened. CBT has roots in the behaviour therapist’s or counsellor’s work of in the initial
20th century (Olthuis et al., 2016).
There are different components of this therapy that must be applied by the counsellor,
and developing a collaborative therapeutic relationship with the client is one of them.
Without the therapeutic relationship, there is no effective and meaningful therapy (Månsson
et al., 2016). The therapeutic relationship allows the counsellor to use effective
communication with the client. Therapeutic relationship allows both the parties to share
information. In the presence of therapeutic relationship, the client develops a sense of trust
and being cared (Powell & Enright, 2015). Tom is suffering from anxiety and stress and also
had some legal issues, thus is might be difficult for him to discussed his health issues and
feeling. Therapeutic relationship will allow him to share his feeling and health conditions
more easily.
In case of Tom a counsellor must understand his mental health and apply the CBT in
recovery-oriented manner. There are some ethical issues a counsellor must consider while
assisting the patient with health services. Confidentiality is the main concern of many patients
with mental health issues (Powell, 2017). Tom has some legal issues and developed alcohol
drinking habits; therefore, his information should be kept private, and must be asked before
discussing them with other health care providers. The counsellor must also take filled consent
form from the patient before initiating the therapy. The consent form should be in the
language understandable to the patient. Tom should be involved in the decision-making
process related to the treatment. This will allow the patient to develop sense of having control
over his treatment and have trust in the healthcare setting. To reduce the anxiety related

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problem Tom will undergo three different stages of CBT (Shalev, Liberzon & Marmar,
2017).
Cognitive behavioural therapy is based on the social learning theory, which focuses
on how patients’ thinking interacts with how they feel and what they do. It is based on the
opinion that when an individual experienced stress, anxiety, and depression that can be
maintained by the exaggerated ways of thinking and that these mental health patterns can be
altered by reducing the erroneous and maladaptive beliefs (Carpenter et al., 2018). By using
the cognitive behavioural therapy, a counsellor can help Tom to recognise his thinking style
and to alter it by using the evidence of logic. First of all, his negative thoughts will be
identified by discussing with him about him situation. In the second stage Tom will be taught
about how he can evaluate his anxiety provoking thoughts. This will includes asking him
about the thoughts frightening him, analysing the negative beliefs, and testing out the
originality of his negative thoughts. For example, in case of Tom, he might have developed
negative thoughts about his sexual assault case and not getting the job in future. To help him
in challenging negative thoughts some of the strategies will be used such as conducting
experiments, weighing pros and cons of his worries or avoiding the things he fears, and
deterring the real chances that he is anxious about will actually take place. The last stage will
be replacing the negative thoughts with real thoughts by allowing the patient wo sat some
calming comments to himself for example the situation is not that terrible, I can overcome
this (Delgadillo et al., 2016). If I will control my anxiety, I will recover form this and get my
job. By replacing the negative thoughts Tom will be able to reduce the issues that encourage
him to drink high amount of alcohol and smoke cigarettes.
If an individual can alter his or her thoughts, their distress reduced and they can work
in such a way that us more probable to advantage them and around them, as the person
acquired new skills, it turn out to be easier for them to solve their problems in a effective

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way. This can also decrease the stress, assist them to sense more in control, and decrease the
threat of unfavourable mood or mood swings (Butler, 2016). The initial phase of this therapy
will involve the thorough assessment of Tom’s thoughts, actions, and situation that trigger the
stress that he experiences, based in the threat Tom will be helped to develop strategic plan to
assists better manage his stress, such type of plan include approaches to advance the stress
producing thoughts and improve the coping skills. He will be provided with instruction in
relaxation exercises, therapeutic interventions, etc. During the treatment the patient will be
examined fir the effectiveness of the therapy regularly (Dear et al., 2015). As the patient is
facing problem in having an effective skill to coping strategy to manage stress, after the
successful implementations of the cognitive behavioural therapy, Tom will be able to manage
his stress and anxiety without being dependent on alcohol.
The patient is recommended to undergo 10 to 12 session, with each session will take
30 to 60 minutes. The session will be conducted once a week or once every two weeks. The
patient is recommended to attend every session and will be provided with some homework
that he must perform at his home so that he can develop new skills to reduce the anxiety and
stress related problems. It has been reported by different psychiatrists and counsellors that
some of the patient who works effectively in the programmes achieve recovery in 5 to 6
sessions only (Ori et al., 2015).
In conclusion, stress is one of most common health issues one face throughout his or
her lifespan. This can be triggered by different events or incidents. Different individuals face
problems in dealing with such mental health problems and develop unhealthy habits like
alcohol consumption, unfavourable diet, etc. In such cases they must seek for help from the
psychiatrist or health counsellor who use different interventions like CBT to alter the
negative thoughts the patient develops. CBT involve assessing the patient and the negative
thoughts, challenging the negative thoughts, and replacing them with positive thoughts. It

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will allow the patient to learn thinking styles and develop therapeutic relationship with the
client. The CBT will involve 10 to 12 session for tom once a week or ever two weeks. After
the successful implementations he will be able to reduce unhealthy habits and learn new
coping skills to fight back stress and anxiety.

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