Effectiveness of Cognitive Therapy

This writer conducted a therapeutic session for a client who had fallen into extreme depression and had subsequently began to abuse illegal substances after the loss of her son. The client was distressed by the death of her son. It is worth noting that the client was so overcome by grief that she had lost her center in life; losing sight of her own goals and future as she dwelt on the past. Unable to change what had occurred, the client turned to drugs abusing marijuana to the extent that it prevented her normal daily functioning. Eventually, she was unable to even distinguish reality from her thoughts and she ultimately became delusional.  Cognitive behavior therapy transforms a client into a state where they can gain a sense of relief in their lives while also helping them evaluate their validity. The client could effectively live her own life in light of the therapeutic techniques that were applied in the session.  More so, the client made her own decisions once again without relying on illegal substances for support. Cognitive behavior therapy is instrumental in providing a way of thinking and responding effectively in moments of crisis once the client is back in the outside world ensuring the client is not tempted to relapse into drug abuse

Synthesis the Articles

In cognitive behavior therapy, the therapist will try to have the client talk about goals and strategies that client needs to attain to live well. It is vital that the therapist maintains a high level of professionalism and should not take a strong position to the client in emphasizing that the change is important. In fact, the therapist should not be confrontational when interacting with the client in the course of therapy sessions.  Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) works by helping the client reach personal conclusions that there is a need to cope with their ongoing input. Cognitive intervention is an active process about change is considered a normal part of the process. It is known to be an effective treatment modality for a wide variety of problems particularly substance abuse. Most clients resort to drug abuse in instances where they face undesirable events such as the loss of a loved one hence they need to be helped in the best ways possible to regain their lives even after the loss. Cognitive intervention is vital in ensuring that clients have an improved form of handling the situations that they face in their lives. Effective intervention is effected through proper social work planning that puts in place effective assessments, planning, and intervention tasks with the affected individuals, families, and groups.

In respect to the work by Bryant and Harder, African-Americans are likely to go into depression due to loss, suffering, and anxiety. Nevertheless, cognitive behavior therapy provides a way of thinking and responding effectively to the changing moments in their lives hence ensuring they do not relapse to drug abuse.   Similar to the assertions by Walsh, Bryant and Harder reiterate that cognitive behavioral therapy is an instrumental method of serving all individuals suffering from excessive depression that is even likely to lead to suicidal intentions. For instance, among African-American adolescents with suicidal intentions, cognitive behavioral therapy is instrumental in ensuring that they are educated on how they could lead their lives in a better way that would ensure they have a forward-thinking mentality rather than thoughts that are likely to take them to drug abuse and ultimate suicidal intentions. There is always need to continued guidance to ensure that clients are supported in the course of all their recovery stages instead of living them to cover all the stages on their own. The best recovery of clients is realized in instances where they are guided across their recovery stages with maximum guidance and supervision by the therapist or social work.

Carbone agrees with both Byrant and Harder and Walsh that difficult times in the lives of individuals such as harsh living conditions in childhood plays an instrumental role in affecting their future lives. For instance, depression could emanate from factors such as social rejection of the individual during their childhood. Therefore, Carbone proposes a socially oriented cognitive behavioral therapy that plays an instrumental role in restoring the attachment of individuals. The intervention should always entail satisfying social affiliations that give the client the opportunity to feel accepted again within the society. There are always positive outcomes for individuals throughout their lives with the promotion of stronger social affiliations for the individual within the community. According to Carbone, treatment should be targeted toward altering the social cognition to a functional template that would give an individual the opportunity to cement more satisfying relationships across the society for positive recovery.

Explain Whether Each Article Demonstrated if the Intervention Was Effective

In each article, Cognitively Behavior Therapy demonstrates effective intervention for each different article population. The article by Carbone on aggression and maltreatment was effective in terms of highlighting the strategies that emphasize negative cognition on child development. In the article, CBT plays and effective intervention in reducing attachment disturbance and focuses on the strategies that will change the individual thoughts perception. This intervention plays an instrumental role in allowing the client to have a better worldview hence ensuring they see things in a more positive way. Thus, it is an effective intervention in terms of supporting the recovery of the client who has had a difficult childhood related to social affiliation.  The article by Bryant and Harder talks about suicidal rates on African Americans, where the CBT works within the family’s and empowers clients within the group on thought-processing.  This intervention also, examine the strengths of the family who are at risk of suicide and helping them to realize their potential problems while also solving the key problems that affect their lives. Therefore, the article’s intervention is effective in terms of giving the therapist the opportunity to work more closely with the client. The involvement of other members including the family and the group also ensures that the client is well-supported in the course of recovery. Last, Walsh also brings out effective cognitive behavioral interventions by addressing effective clinical interventions that could be adopted in ensuring that the client recovers appropriately in the process of the therapy.  By articulating the need for proper assessments and planning, the book is effective in terms of providing guidance to the social worker looking forward to help a client get back to  normal living.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a synthesis of the three sources demonstrates the view that cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in terms of achieving positive outcomes among individuals. The most important thing on the part of the therapist is to ensure that proper planning and assessments are conducted on the client in a professional manner. For instance, for clients who engage in drug abuse, efforts should always be made to ensure that they do not relapse into the situation. More so, closer working with members of the family and even groups is always instrumental in leading to the recovery of the client. Cognitive behavioral therapy is vital for all sorts of clients and this is a big advantage on its part.