The contemporary world is rigged with a vast array of social challenges that affect our daily lives. These challenges include depression, eating disorders, substance use, personality disorders as well as anxiety disorders. In light of these challenges, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy commonly referred to as CBT was conceived in a bid to curb these challenges. This essay thus seeks to provide a succinct and in-depth analysis of the central western concept of CBT and its relation to nonwestern cultures.
Foremost, Cognitive behavioral therapy is a blend of behavioral as well as cognitive therapy. Changing an individual`s emotions directly is undoubtedly a difficult task. For this reason, CBT targets the causative agents toward emotions in a bid to gradually change emotions. In other words, the underlying concept behind CBT is that in order to change one`s emotions one must first change the thoughts / ideologies and behaviors that cause the emotions. This relationship is best exemplified by the cognitive triangle that displays the interconnection between our thoughts, feelings as well as behavior. This means that people who suffer from challenges such as eating and anxiety disorders do so due to their set mode of thinking that triggers the emotions characterized by the disorders. That said, CBT thus seeks to change such patterns of thought such that individuals with the above disorders may eventually change the way they feel and act thus altering their emotions (Robertson, 2010).
Whereas CBT with regard western cultures has extensively been studied, little research has been done with regard to nonwestern cultures. According to Gerstein, (2009 globalization and immigration have led to the interaction of different cultures that are subject to the same challenges as those of the Westerners. The transfer of CBT to nonwestern cultures mainly occurs when counselors acknowledge the activities need for cultural competence, client perception understanding as well as effective cross-cultural communication. On the other hand, CBT may not be transferred to nonwestern cultures when different communication patterns exist between the counsellors and disorder victim. The transfer is also impossible when the counsellors share different cognitive/ perceptive styles across their cultures. Discrimination and persistence of the Western CBT model are also likely to hinder the transfer process. This calls for cultural based counselling rather than standard counselling such that counselors take the time to understand the perception of individuals prior to subjecting them to CBT (Gerstein, Heppner, Aegisdottir and Leung, 2011). .
As I conclude, whereas the general perception that CBT is entirely a Western Science, various nonwestern and pre-enlightenment philosophies also formed the foundation of CBT. I what is commonly renowned as third wave CBT various aspects of Eastern philosophies such as Taoism as well as Buddhism are evident. Greek Stoicism in addition to Roman Stoicism also play an indispensable role in third wave CBT (Shallcross, 2012. According to Shallcross (2012), this is exemplified by eastern meditation techniques such as Yoga. All these nonwestern and pre-enlightenment philosophies place great accentuation on logic, reasoning and general acceptance. Despite the fact that different cultures have different cognitive behavioral approaches, the above philosophies intersect and bring forth the notion that the transformation of maladaptive thoughts into rational into rational and realistic thoughts ultimately leads to healthier living and positive behavioral changes.
References
Beck. S. J. (2011). Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Second Edition: Basics and Beyond. New York. Guilford Press.
Craske. M. G. Cognitive-behavioral Therapy. American Psychological Association.
Gerstein L., Heppner P, Aegisdottir S., Leung. S. A. (2011). Essentials of Cross-Cultural Counseling. SAGE publishers.
Gerstein L. H. (2009).International Handbook of Cross-Cultural Counseling: Cultural Assumptions and practices world Wide. Sage publishers.
Robertson, D. (2010). The philosophy of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). London: Karnac.
Shallcross L. (2012).Where East meets West. Retrieved from http://ct.counseling.org/2012/10/where-east-meets-west/ (27th June 2015)
