Posted by lonelygirl on March 26, 2004, at 13:52:34
In reply to ??? about therapy models, posted by Racer on March 26, 2004, at 10:19:37
Coincidentally, I had a little chat with my CBT today about that. I will try to summarize how he explained "what he does." I’ll try not to mess it up :)
He said that we have reasons for doing everything, which include both conscious and unconscious motivators. When we do something that doesn't seem to make any sense, on some level, it does make sense, but we may not be aware of our "unconscious motivators." Sometimes our unconscious motivators are emotional, and emotions are not logical, so they may cause us to do things that do not seem to make any sense. Sometimes, these emotions are based on fear or shame, and then we might not be willing to admit that because we think it's wrong to feel that way. We may interpret those emotions as something else, such as being tired or angry, which can further confuse our logic.
His "philosophy," I guess, is that we need to figure out what our unconscious motivators are that cause us to do things that don't seem to make sense, and understand why we feel those emotions in order to deal with them constructively. So to answer your question, as I understand it CBT is not supposed to "suppress" your emotions or feelings at all; on the contrary, it is supposed to recognize and understand them.
I guess it depends somewhat on your preferences and what you want to get out of therapy. If there were one model that is definitively the best for everyone, all the schools would teach it and the other models would sort of die out. I personally feel better about CBT than some of the other stuff, because -- and please, please nobody be offended by what I am about to say, because it is only my opinion based on how I think my mind works -- some of the other things seem a little "quack"-ish to me (to reiterate my earlier statement, I know that some of these things work for some people, and that's what matters in the end, but I personally would have a hard time taking them seriously). CBT seems to be more logical rather than based on "magical" sorts of theories. I am generally a bit of a skeptic, and CBT is easier for me to swallow than, say, psychoanalysis, humanist, Gestalt, etc.
Anyway, I am obviously not an expert on psychology, so I can't really give a recommendation one way or another. I'm sure it also depends a lot on what you want to get out of therapy. Just in case you wanted to know, though, that is my take on CBT. Hope it helps in some way.
poster:lonelygirl
thread:328671
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040321/msgs/328753.html