What Is Behavioral Psychotherapy – How It Works?

The connection between your thoughts and your actions is more mysterious and powerful than you think. You sometimes don’t even understand how you have to react in some situations. Yet, you show an immediate reaction that is deeper than you thought. On the other hand, our minds are more susceptible to negative thoughts than positivity which may lead to problematic behaviors. To maintain its balance with positive thoughts, you should know the importance of behavioral psychotherapy.

 

What is Behavioral Psychotherapy?

We describe behavioral psychotherapy with a broad term and refer it to as clinical psychotherapy, which involves a range of techniques used to change an individual’s maladaptive behaviors. The main objective of this therapy is to reinforce desirable behaviors and control potential self-destructive and harmful behaviors.

We not only practice behavioral psychotherapy only to treat severe behavioral problems but we also practice it to treat other conditions like

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Stress
• eating disorders
• Anger issues
• Bulimia
• Somatic symptom disorder
• sleeping disorders
• panic disorders
• substance abuse
• ADHD

Psychotherapists also say that behavioral psychotherapy helps people develop communication, positive thought patterns, self-esteem, and coping mechanisms.

Types of Behavioral Psychotherapy?

Behavioral psychotherapy comes in various types according to the individual needs and factors affecting their behavior patterns, signs, symptoms, and severity.

• 1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  CBT incorporates coping mechanisms while also concentrating on the problematic and disturbing thoughts that influence behaviors.
• 2. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
  DBT is a type of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy that combines behavioral and cognitive strategies to help people know how to manage their emotions, cope with stress, and improve interpersonal relationships.
• 3. Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy
  Play is the key aspect of this therapy to diagnose, prevent, or cure psychosocial problems.
• 4. Applied Behavior Analysis
  Operant conditioning, is a way of learning through obtaining rewards or avoiding punishments. We use it in applied behavior analysis to shape and modify troublesome behaviors.
• 5. Exposure Therapy
  People who are afraid of events or items can benefit from exposure therapy, which uses behavioral techniques to help them overcome their phobias. This method involves relaxation techniques to help them expose the source of their concerns.
• 6. Social Learning Theory
  It focuses on how people learn by watching others. Observing how others are rewarded or punished for their behaviors might lead to new insights and behavioral changes.
• 7. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
  The goal of REBT is to recognize and eliminate negative or harmful thoughts and feelings.

Techniques Used in Behavioral Therapy

As the types of behavioral psychotherapy, a few techniques help in treatment based on individual conditions.

• • Systematic Desensitization
    It is a technique for becoming less sensitive to particular triggers over time. The systematic desensitization largely relies on classical conditioning, a sort of unconsciously and automatically learned behavior. It is mainly focused on phobias and anxiety issues, which are the most common cause of behavioral problems. Your psychotherapist will teach you how to overcome the fear with some relaxation techniques like breathing exercises, counting numbers, using a stress ball, etc.
  • Aversion Therapy
    This technique is used to treat people who have habits like nail-biting, bed-wetting, substance abuse, alcohol use, etc. These trigger points affect behavior patterns. This aversion therapy helps patients on giving up on their undesirable habits by causing them to associate them with an unpleasant effect.
  • Parent Training
    In this technique, parents are taught ways to develop positive behaviors and control negative behaviors through an effective parent-child relationship. Therapists instruct parents on observing the child’s behavior and praise and encourage those good habits.
  • Peer Interventions
  • Peer assistance in behavioral psychotherapy helps manage one’s emotional stress and self-esteem and encourages positive behavior in academic performance and social settings.
  • Behavior Modeling
    It is a technique that involves observation and imitating. This modeling technique helps develop new skills by simply imitating others.

Many mental health conditions can be treated by using all the above techniques in behavioral psychotherapy. That includes OCD, schizophrenia, insomnia, binge eating, social anxiety, personality disorders, etc.

How Does Behavioral Psychotherapy Influence Mental Health?

Behavioral psychotherapy is determined to enhance an individual’s mood by avoiding negative thoughts like self-destruction and harmful thoughts.

Behavioral psychotherapy is a proven method to influence mental health positively.