If you live in Argentina, you're most likely to have some known psychologist. Since we are the country with more psychologists per capita every 100,000 inhabitants.
There are many myths and ignorance around the practices in psychology. This is due to the fact that, in our country, psychoanalytic practice is widespread, although it has been fainted in most countries of the world due to not presenting the corresponding scientific validity.
The reality is that psychologists do not interpret dreams nor can we read minds nor guess or reconstruct the past of our offices. Psychology is a science that studies psyche and human behavior and our work as psychologists is to provide tools to modify behaviors or to be able to boost greater well-being in the person.
In our country, as we said, there is a diversity of theoretical referentials where, however, there is a predominance of psychoanalysis, so we are likely to adhere to this current with psychology itself. However, there are other theoretical currents that have been practiced in the world and that for several decades have come to stay.
Cognitive Therapy - Conductual (TCC), what is and what is it for?
The TCC is mainly distinguished from psychoanalysis and other currents because it is a therapy that is framed within what is known as evidence-based practices (PBE) or scientific psychology. This means that they are treatments that have been tested and systematically researched and that have been validated empirically because they have demonstrated their effectiveness in broad populations and with diverse problems. The same arises around the 80’s having as pioneer Aaron Beck, who first introduced a manual of cognitive therapy - behavioral for depressive disorders. Today, TCC has studies and has been validated for a wide range of problems.The TCC is fundamentally based on the assumption of interrelationship between our thoughts, conducts and emotions. That is, that our thoughts affect our conducts, so a change of thought may lead to modifying the provoked emotion and conduct itself. In other words, we usually suffer from the thoughts we associate with a certain event that by success itself. And generally, we cannot modify these events, but we can modify the thoughts, emotions and behaviors associated with it.
In addition to the most important underlying theory, it is that the idea and purpose of therapy is to help the patient to be able to monitor these thoughts to have more notion of them, as well as to be able to modify those that result deadaptative or harmful to his life and particular interests. All this, agreeing with the patient and proposing reachable goals, reviewing advances and providing useful and concrete tools.
What to expect from the first sessions with a psychologist/a?
It is indispensable that within the first sessions the psychologist:- Listen carefully to the person in order to start hypotheses about what happens to him
- Explain how they will work there and provide all the necessary information to the consultant.
- Comment that it is the most scientifically proven treatment for the problem to solve, inform about your pros and cons, as well as provide different alternatives that have shown effectiveness.
The central idea is that the patient has an active role in their changes, so objectives will be evaluated together, as well as the tools to achieve them according to the characteristics of the person. A cognitive psychologist - behavioral will not tell you what to do, nor has a magical solution, but you will follow to achieve these goals, working skills and explaining the models underlying their behaviors to better understand their behaviors.
Therapy is a process and it is extremely important that one as a patient may have an active role and make decisions, and in particular that the treatment with greater evidence of effectiveness has demonstrated for the problem to be dealt with.
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