Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of talk therapy that helps you change the way you think about and react to a situation. CBT is often used to treat anxiety and other mood disorders, because CBT can help you manage your symptoms and reduce your anxiety.
Children with anxiety might worry that something bad will happen, like getting in trouble at school or their parents getting sick. These worries can make it hard to do things like go to school, play sports, spend time with friends, or sleep at night. Because these worries happen over and over again, they often make children feel anxious or sad.
When children have anxiety, they may also have physical symptoms like a stomach ache or headache. Sometimes these physical symptoms are so strong that kids can’t go to school or do other things they need to do. This makes them worry even more about having another stomach ache or headache the next day.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a form of talk therapy that helps individuals change their thoughts and feelings through examining the relationships between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This can be helpful in treating many different conditions, including anxiety.
During CBT sessions with children and adolescents, the therapist will often use play to help children learn new ways of thinking and behaving. Play allows children to express themselves in a way that feels comfortable to them. The therapist may also use drawings, stories, or role-playing games to help the child identify and change beliefs about him/herself or his/her world that are getting in the way of his/her happiness.
How does CBT work? CBT works by helping children identify negative thinking patterns that might be making them feel bad and teaching them how to change these patterns into more positive ones. To do this, the therapist might ask children to imagine a situation that makes them sad or anxious and then help them evaluate what they are thinking about it. Most people have both positive and negative thoughts when they think about something upsetting or scary.
When a child undergoes CBT, it can help them identify their own thought patterns and behaviors so they can better understand why they are feeling anxious. It also helps them learn how to change their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to cope with their anxiety. Successful completion of CBT can result in significant reduction of symptoms associated with child anxiety.
CBT sessions usually last between 30 minutes and an hour. Sessions are scheduled every week or every other week. The number of sessions depends on your child’s needs, but typically lasts for 10-20 sessions. During the first few sessions, the therapist will get to know your child and ask questions about what is bothering them. The therapist will then explain how thoughts influence feelings and behaviors. They may have your child keep a record of their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors to help them understand the relationship between these things. The next part of treatment teaches your child specific skills for managing anxiety. For example, if your child has a fear of dogs, they may learn how to approach dogs gradually until they are comfortable with them. Your child will also learn general skills for managing anxiety including relaxation techniques, deep breathing exercises, muscle relaxation training, and more.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that helps people learn how to change their thoughts and behaviors in order to become less anxious. It is especially effective for children with anxiety disorders, who may not be able to talk about their feelings at length or may not know how to express themselves.
Research has shown that CBT improves the symptoms of anxiety disorders in children. In fact, about 80% of kids who receive CBT for anxiety are better after treatment.
The goal of CBT is to help kids recognize the ways their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors influence each other. People with anxiety have a tendency to focus on worst case scenarios. They see danger or threat where there may not be any, and they may overgeneralize from one negative incident to assume that all similar events will also be negative.
CBT works by helping kids recognize their distorted thought patterns and replace them with more helpful ways of thinking. For example, instead of assuming a negative outcome, kids can learn to think about all the possible outcomes that could occur in a particular situation. Kids also learn problem-solving skills so they can handle future problems more effectively.