Research Paper on "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy"

Research Paper 5 pages (1569 words) Sources: 6 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Cognitive Behavioral Theory

The case of Margarita is not an uncommon occurrence amongst the professional classes in the modern economy. As a Hispanic born living in America and married to an African-American, there are a number of subconscious thoughts and emotions that she may be feeling yet completely unaware. There may be issues associated with her family relations or perhaps work relations that compound a undiagnosed minor chemical imbalance. A minor chemical imbalance in this case would be minor enough to be 'treated' using aromatherapy, psychological counsel and emotionally release.

In meeting with Margarita for several sessions, the understanding is that currently, Margarita is receiving a form of therapy from her husband, whom has become somewhat of a punching bag for his wife. The underlying problem with this situation is that she does not realize her real opinion of her husband. The real opinion is not negative in so much as it is one of utter displeasure. Whether her emotional disturbance directly or indirectly linked to her relationship with her husband, in reality her violent tendencies toward her husband may soon involve a household weapon and a blinding moment of rage resulting in bodily injury to one or both parties.

The Cognitive Behavioral Theory (CBT) (Martin, 2011), provides a framework on which to evaluate Margarita's behavior in a manner that will provide insight into her underlying emotional nature rather than fruitless feedback of an irrelevant nature. Specifically, the CBT seeks to identify individual thoughts, which ultimately impact feelings and result in change in display of behavior outside of expected norms. CBT will seek to provide insight into providing real help to Margarita by using questions designed to find the keywords that identify her underlying emotional state, a state that is inherently depressive, perhaps manic at times, but always volatile and potentially dangerous.

Additionally, her feeling of depression or morass could be the larger trigger of her at times violent emotional state, as she does not feel perhaps in real control of her life and goes to work with uncertainty and an eye of despair. The idea over the first two sessions is to evaluate Margarita's overall state of mind in a variety of areas, using keywords and having her identify what emotional response, either via a scene or picture displayed in her mind or a work that she feels describes the trigger word used in the questioning experiment. The first two sessions therefore will be to understand Margarita and her underlying emotions indirectly related to what is displayed on the surface with her demeanor and mannerisms.

Over the course of obtaining information regarding her emotional state, a clearer picture will develop that provides an in-depth view of how she thinks emotionally when given trigger words. Certain words will evoke a positive response to most respondents, such as a combination of keywords in a row that would be unbeknownst to her before hand. For instance, she will provide a keyword response or picture response to the keyword 'vacation'. Her response to vacation may be anything, however, should it be something along the lines of say, relaxation, and the follow up keyword is Hawaii, and her response is vacation, or destination, then there is an understanding of pent up stresses and perhaps the need for a very good, unwinding vacation to a Hawaii.

The ability to change thoughts (Frankel, 2004) is central to this process of Margarita's diagnosis and is an important internal healing process that will enable her to express her deep down emotional state and really begin to heal from the inside out. As a Hispanic woman, the natural course of cultural mores involves somewhat of a repression of emotion and feeling of Hispanic women in their society. Margarita may not do well initially with this approach, as one should be somewhat comfortable with the notion of exploring their internal mindset on a subconscious level. In fact, it may best be in her interest for all details of what the process is seeking to be undisclosed to her until after the sessions.

Additionally, some information taken as factual may become erroneous upon the sessions questioning. Margarita claims to not have been the victim of any sexual abuse at any point in her life however, she may have repressed such memory of a sexual abuse encounter and therefore does not remember and is not lying, but is displaying negative emotion from an event that is not in her conscious memory. Such a memory could be retrieved from the depths of her subconscious should the picture be painted using specific keywords used to pull an emotional state from different points in her life.

Therapy sessions are imperative to serving as the secondary foundation of support for Margarita with the intention of promoting her change in expression of outward behavior by changing how she feels about her life. (Branch, 2010, pp. 39-61) Identifying these emotions will be critical to maintaining her mental health and to assisting her husband to further provide primary intervention via assistance to cope with her emotional episodes.

The Questions and Suggestions approach (Whitfield, 2007, pp. 87-107) provides the forum to discuss the issues when a particular negative episode had occurred to identify the thoughts, emotions and feelings Margarita was feeling at the time. The dissection of the episode via an analytical approach reveals the underlying structure on the conscious level regarding the events that have brought her in for therapy. Once the episodes are clearly identified, and the surface emotional state is identified through the analysis, then the process of using keywords can further define her subconscious level of emotional thought regarding important topics from past and present.

The limitations of using the CBT approach from a cultural perspective is the multi-modal method of a panacea belief of CBT being the cure-all for the mental disorders that may afflict an individual. Certainly, there are cultural differences amongst the populations as well as societal and environmental factors that created inherent differences in the thought processes of individuals. Therefore, one individual will interpret an input differently from Margarita even if from the same culture given the variety of differences that can affect one's judgment, including education.

However, in this case, Margarita's education may have prevented her from actually harming her husband, perhaps she was rational enough to know that actually harming him would cause legal and social ramifications for her. Not to mention her emotional attachment to her enabler as a driver of her emotional release, with him unable to continue in that capacity, serious considerations concerning her ability to conduct her career in a professional and sane manner come into question.

Although there has not been a detection of a chemical imbalance in Margarita's brain, there may be evidence of a misdiagnosis. Should there be a hypothesis that perhaps she has been misdiagnosed based on information obtained from the session analysis, she should then undergo retesting at a prominent facility with a notable expertise in the area of neural sciences, including neural chemistry and neural physiology.

Additionally, Margarita must be open and willing to receive this form of treatment. Her frame of reference is a function of her childhood and dictates how she will view her life events. She may have a misunderstanding of the events in her life thus creating an irrational outburst of extreme anger. Therefore, CBT many not fully address the underlying issues associated with Margarita's depression and unexplainable violent outbursts.

Margarita has shown her depressed side to her husband and her parents and therefore these individuals are important to mitigate future outbursts. Her depression is likely linked to a lack of enthusiasm due to the demands on her life. She also seems unable to interact socially with individuals other than her husband and family. Some individuals are happy with limiting their social exposure so this many… READ MORE

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