Finding the Right Cognitive Therapist

The problem with cognitive therapy is the Therapy part. When someone needs cognitive therapy, how can you be sure that the counselor and the curriculum he or she uses will have the ability to alter thinking errors and self-defeating conduct? There are a plethora of therapists out in the world who all have personal interpretations and curriculum. Few of them, if any, are fact based with sufficient confirmation that what they use is proper and useful.

Practically any counseling program could claim that it is cognitive therapy, though very little, if any, could show that it is successful. In a sense cognitive therapy is misnamed. The meaning of the word "therapy" is the treating of sickness or disability. Employing cognitive therapy in mental illness is generally in vain since you cannot utilize cognitive restructuring training on someone who is not cognitive. This is also true for children. Cognitive therapy is ineffective on children for an identical reason: they aren't yet cognitive.

The problem with using therapists to assist in cognitive therapy courses is that the majority of therapists are emotionally sick themselves and many live in the box of self-deception. That is, they do not see that they're ill and therefore they pass on their sickness (untruths) to their patients. A myriad of individuals attend psycho therapists sessions for many years at a vast cost, however, they don't get better, in fact, many grow worse than they were before. In spite of all that trained cognitive life skills counselors with correct evidence based curriculum can aid individuals in creating enduring changes in a matter of hours instead of days, months and years. This is not to imply that all therapists are ineffective. The best counselors/therapists think positively. Individuals alter their lives because of truth, not counseling techniques. The truth vibrates at a frequency that can cut the veil of self-imposed false beliefs and allow people to conquer years and years of faulty programing. Consider cognitive restructuring life skills VS a clinical method of cognitive therapy. Watch for fact based cognitive restructuring courses that will give proof that their system is successful. Look for writers and organizations that have years of experience in making and running groups. There isn't a book out there that can replace real hands-on experience.

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Larry Lloyd, is the director of the American Community Corrections Institute (ACCI) which offers truth-filled cognitive restructuring curriculum. See also their blog at Cognitive Life Skills.com.