cbt case study essay

What Is a Case Study?

When you’re performing research as part of your job or for a school assignment, you’ll probably come across case studies that help you to learn more about the topic at hand. But what is a case study and why are they helpful? Read on to learn all about case studies.

At face value, a case study is a deep dive into a topic. Case studies can be found in many fields, particularly across the social sciences and medicine. When you conduct a case study, you create a body of research based on an inquiry and related data from analysis of a group, individual or controlled research environment.

As a researcher, you can benefit from the analysis of case studies similar to inquiries you’re currently studying. Researchers often rely on case studies to answer questions that basic information and standard diagnostics cannot address.

Study a Pattern

One of the main objectives of a case study is to find a pattern that answers whatever the initial inquiry seeks to find. This might be a question about why college students are prone to certain eating habits or what mental health problems afflict house fire survivors. The researcher then collects data, either through observation or data research, and starts connecting the dots to find underlying behaviors or impacts of the sample group’s behavior.

Gather Evidence

During the study period, the researcher gathers evidence to back the observed patterns and future claims that’ll be derived from the data. Since case studies are usually presented in the professional environment, it’s not enough to simply have a theory and observational notes to back up a claim. Instead, the researcher must provide evidence to support the body of study and the resulting conclusions.

Present Findings

As the study progresses, the researcher develops a solid case to present to peers or a governing body. Case study presentation is important because it legitimizes the body of research and opens the findings to a broader analysis that may end up drawing a conclusion that’s more true to the data than what one or two researchers might establish. The presentation might be formal or casual, depending on the case study itself.

Draw Conclusions

Once the body of research is established, it’s time to draw conclusions from the case study. As with all social sciences studies, conclusions from one researcher shouldn’t necessarily be taken as gospel, but they’re helpful for advancing the body of knowledge in a given field. For that purpose, they’re an invaluable way of gathering new material and presenting ideas that others in the field can learn from and expand upon.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Case Study

Presenting problem, identifying information, psychosocial summary, therapist’s conceptualization of the problem, psychotherapeutic plan.

In this work, a case study of a patient who needs to be prescribed treatment is carried out. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (or CBT) is a technique that highlights the unconscious motivations of a person, brings them to a conscious level, helps to change beliefs and behavior that cause unstable and other pathological conditions. The use of this technique can be auspicious in the case of a 28-year-old female patient with no medical history who needs help due to anxiety and anxiety (Heinig et al., 2017). Anxiety leads to panic attacks, but other symptoms in other body parts are entirely denied or absent. Since the problem is psychiatric, the use of such a technique can be fruitful.

A 28-year-old woman complains of anxiety, increased anxiety, turning into panic attacks. As a result, symptoms of hyperventilation and shaking are highlighted. The problem began in adolescence but has intensified relatively recently and significantly interferes with the patient’s adult life.

The patient is 28 years old, has a bachelor’s degree, works part-time, and lives with a girlfriend. She is 5 feet 3 inches tall, which at 200 pounds indicates signs of obesity. The absence of abnormal movements, grooming, support of visual and speech contacts, and a willingness to cooperate shows the absence of serious problems. Even in the process of discussing issues that bothered her, she did not betray her anxiety. The patient’s current situation began about six months ago and interfered with her healthy long sleep, concentration at work, and, consequently, an everyday life, including her companion. She feels guilty about holding back her partner, but no other adverse disorders have been found. There is no medical history, although these problems began at the age of 10. The previous therapist prescribed Paxil, but after a short-term admission, the patient refused due to poor health. At the moment, the patient is not sick; she does not have any other symptoms and past illnesses at all, the experience of taking medications and treatments. The only possibly influencing fact is that the patient daily drinks 2-3 cups of coffee, 1-2 cups of tea, and 2-3 cans of cola.

A short scale for assessing mental status showed the maximum score. The patient enjoys working at TraderJoes; she is focused on a promising future, has many vital plans to work on herself, worries about her companion, and has remorse that worsens due to the symptoms. Socialization has suffered in the last six months due to the indicated symptoms, due to which the patient missed work shifts and avoided social situations and contacts. In her family, her parents also had psychiatric anxiety and OCD. The patient has the highest level of education, lives with a girlfriend, clearly formulates her speech, and answers questions directly without evasion. She has never taken psychoactive substances, has had no problems with the law, and denies having any severe history.

• (F43.22) Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety.
• (F32.9) Major Depression Disorder – may develop against the background.
• (F41.1) Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
• (F41.0) Panic Disorder.
• (F51.01) Primary Insomnia – a symptom of an underlying problem.

My guideline, in this case, is cognitive-behavioral therapy, which will reveal the most significant events in the patient’s life, the most important experience that has consequences now and prevents her from living a whole life. Beliefs form interpretations in the patient’s thought processes, and my task is to get to these sources. My role is to give the patient an opportunity to look at her beliefs and the meaning given to them from a different perspective to understand the true nature of their origin and the observed symptoms. Most often, as practice shows, it is not the events themselves that are the cause of concern but their interpretation in people’s thought processes.

From a cognitive theoretical point of view, I would conceptualize the patient’s struggle as self-doubt turning into a fear of great responsibility. As it turned out, this fact was caused by a move to her girlfriend, which just took place about six months ago, and since then has been a source of debilitating anxiety, reaching panic attacks. It can also be concluded that the patient is concerned about safety for her gender. The problem dates back to childhood, and most likely, this behavior was a consequence of parents’ behavior, each of whom suffered from a psychiatric disorder, which prevented them from living in harmony (Maric et al., 2018). This problem began to become a habit and formed a template for the interpretation of any setbacks or problems that arise along the patient’s path. It is not for nothing that her plans include losing weight and taking care of herself, which implies the presence of a problem in herself, but guilt and symptoms of anxiety do not allow starting acting, which ultimately leads to the above diagnoses.

Cognitive patterns have a reasonably strong connection with the behavior of patients. Therefore, the goal of this treatment is to try to break these patterns or “adapt” to them. In this case, any situation for the patient, in which her successor the quality of her efforts is questioned, should be interpreted by herself with a different meaning, for example, as a challenge or the interpretation of difficulty as confirmation of being on the right path. Particular attention should be paid to changing behavioral patterns in social situations to avoid aggravating the fear of symptoms in crowded places.

What is more, CBT works great when combined with pharmacological effects. The patient is prescribed Sertraline (Zoloft), Hydroxyzine (Vistaril), the first of which is an antidepressant from the group of selective inhibitors, and the second is a weak tranquilizer with sedative and antihistamine effects. These drugs will improve the patient’s condition for a more effective result of modeling various situations. Finally, these medications can help relieve several symptoms of anxiety, such as insomnia.

The therapist’s goal, in this case, is to create a particular set of situations that will contribute to changing these patterns. As an example, a patient can be led into a cognitive conflict in which she will either see the actual cause of her anxiety or find a new solution to the problem that runs counter to negatively influencing patterns (Hayes & Hofmann, 2018). Various methods and therapeutic techniques will be introduced gradually, acquainting the patient with the theoretical foundations in this area, further allowing her to be involved in any situation. Finally, there have been cases where CBT has been shown to provide short-term relief from insomnia symptoms (van der Zweerde et al., 2019). In the patient’s case, it is necessary to introduce situations that make it possible to clarify the influence of parents on her behavior and identify her strengths, and be guided by common sense and personal experience, not by complexes or anxiety.

We need to show her that when faced with such a burden of responsibility, she is strong enough to pull it, constantly emphasizing its advantages. Modeling such situations can change the patient’s pattern of behavior and return her to everyday life, adequate perception of difficulties, and opportunities for development at work and in personal life. Of course, these problems are likely laid down at the deepest level of knowledge, but with the proper application of the methodology, recovery is only a matter of time.

Hayes, S. C., & Hofmann, S. G. (Eds.). (2018). Process-based CBT: The science and core clinical competencies of cognitive-behavioral therapy . New Harbinger Publications.

Heinig, I., Pittig, A., Richter, J., Hummel, K., Alt, I., Dickhöver, K. & Wittchen, H. U. (2017). Optimizing exposure‐based CBT for anxiety disorders via enhanced extinction: Design and methods of a multicentre randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 26 (2), e1560.

Maric, M., van Steensel, F. J., & Bögels, S. M. (2018). Parental involvement in CBT for anxiety-disordered youth revisited: family CBT outperforms child CBT in the long term for children with comorbid ADHD symptoms. Journal of Attention Disorders, 22 (5), 506-514.

van der Zweerde, T., Bisdounis, L., Kyle, S. D., Lancee, J., & van Straten, A. (2019). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia: a meta-analysis of long-term effects in controlled studies. Sleep Medicine Reviews , 48 , 101208.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Introduction, presenting concerns, three central concepts, strengths and limitations.

All psychotherapy approaches work to address the underlying thought patterns that result in psychological distress. The different treatment methods that are mostly used include behavioral therapy, rational emotive behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and reality therapy. Every condition and situation calls for application of a specific type of strategy by the counselor after evaluation of the elemental concern. However, many patients tend to suggest that as much as they recognize that certain thoughts are irrational or healthy, becoming aware of the same cogitations does not become easy to change them. Therefore, before conceptualizing on which particular approach to use in a case, it is important to identify client’s presenting concerns, concepts of the treatment model, and techniques to be applied for the stratagem.

As a counselor I would use the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to conceptualize Gina’s case of criticizing herself angrily for her family’s tension and disagreement. The suitability of CBT lies on the fact that the method focuses on redirecting patients’ thoughts and changing their behaviors so that they can generally alter how they feel about a certain situation (Carpenter et al., 2018). With CBT, Gina’s negative feelings of blaming herself on all family’s problems can be retrained in order for her to make changes on how she perceives herself with regard to the incidents on her family (Rialon, 2016). Accordingly, CBT will enable Gina to cope up with similar problems in future and provide solutions to them without having to condemn herself for everything.

From Gina’s case, I can identify various presenting concerns by analyzing her situation. Firstly, there are feelings of anger within her because she berates herself on the notion that she has disappointed her father as the man expects her to be the strongest of all his children in the family (Tolin, 2016). Secondly, there exists the concern of excess worry from Gina because she thinks a lot about her family ordeal (Rialon, 2016). Thirdly, the presenting concern is the confused thinking that she constantly engages in over every member of her family (Tolin, 2016). The problems pose a greater threat to Gina’s mental health if she does not seek a counselor’s assistance as appropriate.

Based on the three presenting concerns I have identified, there is one that I would firstly address. I would start by addressing the confused thinking that Gina is undergoing. The reason for choosing this particular concern over others is that it can be reoriented to help the patient change her overall feelings about her mental problem (Carpenter et al, 2018). Without doubt, if Gina rids herself of demented thoughts are averted, and then she would not be bitter with herself and consequently regain confidence to be able to handle the crisis the family has gotten itself.

There are three key concepts to CBT which must be well understood by a therapist before assessing the client. These ideas are core beliefs, dysfunctional assumptions, and negative thoughts. Core beliefs or schemas are the strongly held convictions about self, others and the outside world in which an individual lives (Tolin, 2016). In essence, the beliefs are learnt at the early stages of life and influenced by childhood experiences. Ideally, the early life incidents are often viewed as the absolutes. Dysfunctional assumptions are inflexible, tentative rules for living that people usually adopt (Carpenter et al., 2018). In some cases, the rules are impractical and therefore flawed. The third concept in CBT is the negative thoughts, which are the unconditioned thoughts activated in specific situations (Tolin, 2016). The negative thoughts comprise of all issues of negativity, low self-esteem, and uselessness, among others. As evident, the three concepts of CBT show how every rational human being think about themselves and their immediate environment.

Most importantly, the three CBT concepts are important in understanding or working on Gina’s case. In using the core beliefs, it is of utmost relevance to understand the religious or secular beliefs that Gina may hold. The understanding of Gina’s religious doctrines will automatically help a therapist to know the client’s core beliefs. Additionally it is also important to delve into her childhood life to understand her upbringing as this is also important in understanding how the early life shapes her core beliefs. Next, Gina’s dysfunctional assumptions are analyzed to check which rules and goals she has set for herself that may be contributing to her self-criticism. Moreover, Gina’s role models and their favorite quotes should also be checked to ascertain whether she subscribes to their thoughts and their ways of life. With the two concepts having been applied, the therapist is able to ascertain the negative thoughts and group them accordingly, whether low self-esteem, uselessness, or other. Therefore, the use of the three concepts of CBT is crucial to understanding Gina’s case.

Analytically, CBT has its best strengths that make it to be an appropriate model for Gina’s case. Firstly, CBT enables a patient to develop more rational thought processes (Rialon, 2016). This is much help because cognitive distortions do occur and are bound to occur at any point in the life of a human being due to their spontaneous natures. After a period of time, the process of questioning and replacing negative thoughts from Gina’s mind will automatically transform her thought processes. Secondly, the strength of CBT lies in its ability to equip patients with new skills and strategies that enable them to tackle new and future psychological distress (Tolin, 2016). As the process entails training or conditioning of behaviors, the clients can train their conduct to a specific direction and be champions of CBT. Accordingly, Gina can apply the skills she has acquired to future problems. Inarguably, CBT is a model that acts as a training school for mental patients.

Nonetheless, CBT has a share of its weaknesses that should be noted before employing it. Firstly, CBT model is narrow in scope as it focuses mainly on cognitive thought processes and behavior of an individual (Carpenter et al., 2018). Sometimes, mental problems are caused by external factors that usually need to be addressed before the behavior and thought patterns are assessed. The treatment paradigm therefore works best with patients who have exclusively distorted thought patterns and may fail to perform on patients with other associated problems (Rialon, 2016). Another weakness with the CBT treatment strategy is that it may be prone to ethical criticism, because of its training nature to a patient (Tolin, 2016). As CBT advocates for the change in thought processes and behaviors, it may be criticized of ‘forceful’ change in a person’s conduct and dogmas. Consequently, this may not yield good results for a patient who has strong attachment to some set of beliefs and is not ready to change.

Any rational human being may apply cognitive restructuring to one’s life when hit by challenging situations that may generate stress. If, for instance, one of my best friends is hosting a graduation party and I am not invited, this is most likely to make think that he does not like me or he does not highly regard me. I would use cognitive restructuring in creating alternative or balanced thoughts for example telling myself that the friend likes me but he does not have to invite me for everything (Rialon, 2016). The probable outcome for this thought would be happiness and relaxation for me (Tolin, 2016). With the cognitive restructuring, I am able to learn my cognitive biases and errors that would otherwise make me be judgmental of my friend by jumping into conclusions without any analysis (Carpenter et al., 2018). Therefore, learning to overcome reasoning errors is important to situations that might be stressing.

When attempting to apply cognitive restructuring from CBT to my life, I encountered numerous challenges. Firstly, as an individual, I had the difficulty in identifying my emotions and thoughts that resulted from my worries (Tolin, 2016). From the failure of one of my friends to invite me for his graduation party, I was not sure whether to be sad, regretful, or hateful of the friend or myself. Secondly, I was able to agree with the postulations of the strategy but altering my thinking became difficult (Tolin, 2016). Illustratively, I was more thoughtful of the negative reasons as to why the friend could not invite me for his party, and as such replacing positive thoughts in my mind was difficult. The situation in the example has strengthened me to rely mostly on cognitive restructuring as the best strategy in CBT.

Certainly, in applying cognitive restructuring, I noticed cultural limitation to this approach. Since CBT stresses on cognition, rationality, and verbal skills, I realized that the cognitive emphasis was leading to undervaluing of my cultural values. All my focus was drawn to restructuring my behavior and thoughts towards my friend who did not invite me to his party but, at the same time, neglecting the influences that the traditional customs had on me (Tolin, 2016). As a matter of fact, the friendship value had been defaced, and with my traditions, the friendship could have ended without having to reconsider it through any cognitive strategy.

Carpenter, J., Andrews, L., Witcraft, S., Powers, M., Smits, J., & Hofmann, S. (2018). Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and related disorders: A meta‐analysis of randomized placebo‐controlled trials. Depression and Anxiety Association of America, 35 (6), 502-514.

Rialon, B. (2016). Advances in cognitive-behavioral therapy for youth with anxiety disorders: A brief summary. Current Psychiatry Reviews , 12 (1), 29-36.

Tolin, D. (2016). Doing CBT: A comprehensive guide to working with behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. Guilford Press.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - Case Study Example

• Subject: Miscellaneous
• Type: Case Study
• Level: Masters
• Pages: 4 (1000 words)
• Downloads: 16
• Author: zkoch

Extract of sample "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)"

(Neenan & Dryden, 2006). In many cases patients that require cognitive behavior therapy exhibit traits like self-destructive and repulsive habits, shame, avoidance, harbor unproductive thoughts and entertain blame games. (Willson & Branch, 2006). Stan's case is not isolated as he depicts similar traits. For example, he avoids the people he used to associate with while he was still in employment, he is unwilling to take work he is over qualified for hence has been unemployed for six months. At the same time he feels ashamed of his unemployment status hence avoids going out of the house at all, he drinks during the day rather than look for another job, he feels entitled to provide financially as the firstborn in his family irrespective of his impossible situation.

His panic attacks are as a result of the anxiety he feels from the overwhelming responsibility of being a father, a first born and a husband and the fact that he is not able to get himself out of the situation. The source of Stan's problems is in his pattern of thoughts. The way he perceives his situation has led to the outward show of his frustration and depression. For example, he lost his job and hence he thinks that he has failed. Highly likely are thoughts like 'I am no good' or 'I am a failure' and in that case a self-prophecy has been written in his mind.

It is from this thought that he now behaves like a failure and has no time to look for a job but drink during the day or avoid going out of the house to hide his failure. Of course, his problem aggravates because he avoids doing the very things that might be helpful in bringing forth a solution. For example he avoids former colleagues and friends and turns down employment because he is 'over' qualified. Stan's panic attacks root from anxiety linked to distorted thoughts and idealistic expectations.

Intervention strategies As seen Stan's problems are birthed from own thoughts and this has affected his behavior. Therapy will focus on helping Stan change his way of thinking. His panic attacks will be dealt with by challenging Stan's thoughts and fears. This will entail encouraging Stan to confront his object or subject of fear in this case going out of the house, not providing financially towards his fathers funeral and the new baby, fear of failure and so on. The aim here will be to desensitize these fears by helping Stan realize that he needs to react to situation in reality rather than from his own distorted perception of the situation.

First, the therapist will guide Stan in exploring his thoughts and situation the identify thought patterns and link them to behavior. (Neenan & Dryden, 2006). He might be required to document his thoughts, habits, feelings, events in a journal for review during therapy session. This will help the client and the therapist identify unproductive thoughts in Stan and guide him in replacing each of them with productive and positive thoughts. For example, 'if am jobless, I should not go out' can be replaced with 'I need to go out and network with friends so that I get a job' or 'I am a failure because I did not provide financially to my father's funeral yet am the first born' can be replaced

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