Mental Health Care

Post traumatic stress disorder is classed as an anxiety disorder that can occur after a person has been exposed to a terrifying event or ordeal in which they were seriously physically harmed or threatened. Accidents, military combat, abusive childhoods, violent personal and sexual assaults and earthquakes are just a few events that can trigger it.

There are various effective treatment options available, among them, cognitive behaviour therapy. What does it really involve and is it right for you?

There are several different therapies that are used for post traumatic stress disorder and they come under the banner of cognitive behaviour therapy. Some of these include:

• Exposure Therapy

• Stress-Inoculation Training

• Cognitive Processing Therapy

With post traumatic stress disorder, you can become afraid of things that remind you of your ordeal and try to avoid them. Such reminders can be both external and internal. External reminders in the environment can include such things as, certain smells, pictures or sounds, whereas, internal reminders can be such things as, intrusive thoughts, memories or nightmares. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever wondered how your thoughts and emotions have affected your behaviour? Or whether thoughts and behaviour are inter-related? Is it possible that what you think consciously or unconsciously can actually influence your life and even the lives of those around you?

Often the problems that we face in our lives are because of negative or faulty thought patterns that manifest themselves in our day to day behaviours and we are unable to recognise it. Thus we are trapped in the vicious circle of negative thoughts leading to negative behaviours which again causes negative thoughts. So how do we correct these faulty thought patterns and make life better? The answer lies in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a form of psychotherapy which emphasizes the importance of thinking and how it affects our emotions and actions. It is based on the idea that our thoughts influence our actions, our moods, our feelings and our emotions. External things like people, situations, and the environment are not the cause of our problems. Thus if you correct your way of thinking and make a change in yourself you can cope better with the same people and situations and function better in the same environment.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is one of the shortest forms of therapy available, in terms of time and effective results. An average of 16 sessions or lesser is required depending on the problem. The whole therapy process is structured and goal-oriented. The therapist and the client collaborate on the goal of the therapy, and the decision to terminate the therapy when it has been achieved. What makes it very effective is the fact that each session has a goal which is decided by the therapist and the client. They have to work on the techniques in that session to reach an outcome, and proceed likewise in each subsequent session. Therefore in each session the therapist guides the client towards his goal by teaching him alternative or new ways to think and behave to achieve what they want. Read the rest of this entry »