CBT Strengths and Weaknesses of Thesis

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The relationship between therapist and client is professional with a certain emotional distance which minimizes the chance of projection of pleasant ("my therapist is my best friend") or unpleasant emotions onto the therapist. Because the therapist must ask searing and searching questions of the client, this type of professionalism is essential. The therapist treats the client like an adult: "Therapists focus on teaching rational self-counseling skills," that the client can use in his or her life (CBT, 2007, NACBT). The client is viewed as possessing the means to change him or herself, and the decision to change must be a choice, made on the part of the client. This is why CBT uses the Socratic Method, prompting clients to question their assumptions and behavioral patterns with probing queries: 'Why can't you talk to strangers? What would happen if you tried?' Clients are also given homework, or specific, behavioral actions they are encouraged to perform, such as talk to a stranger, for example if the client is socially self-conscious.
In contrast to Freudian therapy's focus on the irrational, subconscious mind, CBT sees clients as rational actors who can intelligently examine their lives.

Critics contend that quite often, clients need a period of dependency upon a therapist. Furthermore, clients may not have clear, highly directed goals. Even if they are required to define those goals at the beginning of the session, these goals are likely to be imposed by the structure of CBT. Imposing goals upon the session might be artificial and counterproductive. Also, instead of stressing behavioral changes regarding drinking, understanding why the client is self-medicating with alcohol is more essential, critics of CBT would say. Critics see CBT as superficial, and focusing only on externals rather than internal shifts in attitudes. However, CBT therapists would counter that there is no 'inner' life separate from outer actions. Behaviors create the self, and beliefs about the self cannot be separated from behaviors (CBT, 2007, NACBT).

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