DISORDERS AND TREATMENTS
 

DISORDERS 

The following disorders are explained in the pages, attached. For additional questions, please use the contact information supplied.

Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder

Anxiety/Fears/Phobias

Obsessive Worry

Post-Traumatic Stress disorder

ADD/ADHD

ODD

Body Dysmorphic Disorder  

TREATMENTS

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach that addresses dysfunctional emotions, maladaptive behaviors and cognitive processes and contents through a number of goal-oriented, explicit systematic procedures. The name refers to behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and to therapy based upon a combination of basic behavioral and cognitive principles and research. Most therapists working with patients dealing with anxiety and depression use a blend of cognitive and behavioral therapy. This technique acknowledges that there may be behaviors that cannot be controlled through rational thought. CBT is "problem focused" (undertaken for specific problems) and "action oriented" (therapist tries to assist the client in selecting specific strategies to help address those problems). [1]

CBT is thought to be effective for the treatment of a variety of conditions, including mood, anxiety, personality, eating, substance abuse, tic, and psychotic disorders. Many CBT treatment programs for specific disorders have been evaluated for efficacy; the health-care trend of evidence-based treatment, where specific treatments for symptom-based diagnoses are recommended, has favored CBT over other approaches such as psychodynamic treatments. 

Mainstream cognitive behavioral therapy assumes that changing maladaptive thinking leads to change in affect and behavior, [4] but recent variants emphasize changes in one's relationship to maladaptive thinking rather than changes in thinking itself. [5] Therapists or computer-based programs use CBT techniques to help individuals challenge their patterns and beliefs and replace "errors in thinking such as overgeneralizing, magnifying negatives, minimizing positives and catastrophizing" with "more realistic and effective thoughts, thus decreasing emotional distress and self-defeating behavior" [4] or to take a more open, mindful, and aware posture toward them so as to diminish their impact. [5] Mainstream CBT helps individuals replace "maladaptive… coping skills, cognitions, emotions and behaviors with more adaptive ones", [6] by challenging an individual's way of thinking and the way that he/she reacts to certain habits or behaviors, [7] but there is still controversy about the degree to which these traditional cognitive elements account for the effects seen with CBT over and above the earlier behavioral elements such as exposure and skills training.