Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy or CBGT has actually various purposes and uses.
It is at times used for children who have sexual problems but oftentimes for individuals who have social phobia or the like.
Basically, cognitive behavioral group therapy is a form of group therapy developed conforming to the principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT.
There are actually two techniques used in this kind of therapy: the cognitive restructuring or the changing of negative thinking patterns and the exposure or the facing feared situations.
Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Phobia
As what aforementioned, cognitive behavioral group therapy is oftentimes used with individuals with social phobia because of the great results.
Essentially, CBGT when applied to social phobia has actually three primary components: in-session exposure to feared social situations, cognitive restructuring, and homework assignments for
in vivo exposure and self-administered cognitive restructuring. All of the components are actually significant as they disrupt the cycle of social anxiety in several ways.
In general, CBGT for social phobia is effective however, to see the real results it may actually take some time. The entire CBGT program has 12 sessions all in all and every session is very rigid and quite time-consuming.
The first two sessions set the stage for the remaining sessions and provide underlying training in cognitive restructuring. While sessions 3 through 11 are the heart of CBGT and actually need all of the cognitive restructuring skills you have learned in the initial sessions.
The last session on the other hand, the session 12, is divided into two – the first half and the second half. The first half allows time for some additional exposures and associated cognitive restructuring activities while the second half for checking every client’s progress during the entire course of the program.
Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy and Other Medication
You more or less know that cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT works best if used with some other medication like an anti-anxiety drug or an antidepressant. But more or less, you might not be aware that this also goes the same with cognitive behavioral group therapy or CBGT.
However, to be safe, be sure you have your doctor’s advice before you have CBGT with some other medications. Thus, never ever dare to put your health at great risk.
