Cognitive Therapy Approach

The second therapy approach that could be used for the workplace issue mentioned earlier is Cognitive Therapy (CT). Cognitive Therapy is based on the fact that thoughts and perceptions impact a person’s feelings and behaviour. It looks at ways to reassess negative thoughts, allowing individuals to learn more flexible and positive ways of thinking. It aims to change the way a person thinks about stressful situations and their ability to cope with stress, thus influencing the client’s behaviour. Cognitive distortions, or exaggerated and irrational thoughts, are believed to perpetuate stress and anxiety. Learning to refute these thoughts is called cognitive restructuring. Psychologists use cognitive restructuring, a psychotherapeutic process of
(Merriam Webster, n.d.) CT perceives psychological problems as rooted from faulty thinking, making incorrect inferences from insufficient or incorrect information, and failing to distinguish between reality and imagination, leading to cognitive distortions. This could lead to unnecessary stress in the workplace as employees distort actual reality, which leads to more pressure being placed on themselves as well as having adverse effects on their workplace environment. CT may consist of analysing a client's self-presumed thoughts and identifying how client's thoughts are distorted, unrealistic and unhelpful. Once these thoughts have been challenged, the client's feelings about the subject matter of these thoughts can be more effectively changed. When a person is in distress they most likely are unable to recognise that their thoughts are inaccurate, CT aids in identifying these thoughts and re-evaluating them. (Counselling Directory,
This negative thought may trigger a cycle, leading to the activity where the mistake was made is now being avoided and this act in itself works to further cement the negative behaviour. In other words, when this man strongly believes that he is a “failure” it will tend to worsen his mood, and he may react by avoiding activities out of fear of failure, which further cements the client's original belief of being "useless." (Boundless, n.d.) Bringing to light and reassessing this negative thought pattern will allow for more flexible and positive ways of thinking, increasing the willingness of clients to take on activities that will help challenge negative beliefs. Time spent reflecting on these thoughts generally lead to patients treating them as real and valid. If the patient escapes the negative thought patterns and dysfunctional behaviours, the negative and irrelevant thoughts may be relieved over time. Soon, clients will begin to re-evaluate their thoughts and think more realistically, inspiring more positive emotional and behavioural thoughts. Successfully intervening in educating a person to recognise and be aware of their distorted