[Source: North Shore Pediatric Therapy]

When deciding the best therapeutic intervention for your child, what type of treatment approach do you choose? Despite your willingness to try out mental health treatment, be cautious as not all service providers practice the same as they operate under different prisms of thought and philosophy. You may have received a recommendation for a cognitive behavioral approach for symptom reduction and have no clue how this differentiates from other modes of treatment.

Here are the basic hallmarks of CBT:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a treatment approach that calls attention to the interrelation of our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. If a person is experiencing negative thinking, such as “I am dumb,” they will have negative feelings and behaviors in alignment with this negative wave of thinking. Thoughts such as “I am dumb,” or “I am worthless” precipitate feelings of sadness or frustration and facilitate negative behaviors that continue to fulfill these negative internal beliefs (i.e  not trying their hardest in class because they don’t feel smart anyways). On the contrary, if a person experiences positive thinking such as “I am smart” or “I am capable,” their feelings and behaviors will be positive in nature.

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