What Is Behavioral Therapy In A Nutshell?

Behavioral therapy is an umbrella under which many different types of therapy are placed which are primarily focused on treating mental health disorders. In this form of therapy, a therapist for teens or children plays the role of identifying destructive and unhealthy behavioral patterns and then changing them. Basically, it is unlearning harmful behaviors that are previously learned. 

Who benefits from behavioral therapy?

• A wide range of disorders can be treated using behavioral therapy. The most common disorders treated using behavioral therapy are:
• Anxiety disorders 
• Depressive disorders
• Panic disorders 
• Anger issues 
• Eating disorders 
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Mood disorders 
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder 
• Phobias 
• Obsessive compulsive disorder 
• Substance abuse, alcoholism 
• Self-harm tendencies, suicidal tendencies

For behavioral therapy for children Mumbai offers many types of behavioral therapy. Some of these are:

Cognitive behavioral therapy - Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most common and popular types of behavioral therapy which combines behavioral therapy with cognitive therapy. It focused on how someone’s thoughts affect their actions. Changing their thoughts can ultimately change their behavioral patterns. 

System Desensitization - This therapy method relies on classical conditioning and is primarily used to treat phobias by helping them replace a fear induced response with a relaxed one. Breathing techniques and exposure therapy are an important part of system desensitization. 

Aversion Therapy - Aversion therapy is used to treat problems like addiction – alcoholism, substance abuse and in some cases, obsessive compulsive disorder too. This type of therapy teaches individuals to associate a stimulus that causes the problem which is desirable with something that is extremely unpleasant. For example, if alcohol is the desirable stimulus, the patient can be taught to associate it with an unpleasant memory or something that the patient really detests.

Behavioral therapy is quite successful in treating a large number of disorders and conditions and on an average has a success rate of almost 75%.