An Examination of Three Examples of Therapy from Three Models: Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive

Affective therapy focuses the most on the individual and his or her own thoughts. Specifically, disorders dealing with affective disorders usually have to do with an individual's interaction with external stimuli, especially social contact. Seasonal depression is one primary example of an affective disorder, and treatment can be tricky. Primarily, treatment for affective disorders such as seasonal depression is known as Person-Centered Counseling, and involves therapy sessions to better acclimate an individual to these stimuli (again, usually social contact, such as the case commonly seen with seasonal depression), as well as to give the patient a sense of self, so that they may identify how their behaviors are being negatively affected by these stimuli.

Behavioral therapy, as its name might imply, focuses more on behaviors of an individual, and involves fixing some of the mental or emotional issues that may be causing these behaviors. Behavioral health therapy often utilizes Behavioral Counseling in order to "train" the brain into modifying its behavior. Behavioral Counseling, primarily, focuses on supplying the brain with stimuli that will cause it to cease these behaviors. For example, virtual reality therapy, another therapy commonly found within the purview of Behavioral Counseling, trains the brain to respond in a certain way to certain stimuli (such as saying hello to someone when they speak)

Lastly, cognitive therapy deals with changing a patient's behavior and emotional responses to stimuli. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a sub-therapy type within cognitive therapy, works from the inside out, beginning with identifying and modifying a patient's beliefs. The main type of therapy within the purview of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy involves a collaboration between the patient and therapist in which the two, together, identify modes of thinking that are causing some of the problems within a patient, such as depression. Oftentimes, this will involve measures such as training the brain to think on the positives and eliminate, or at least minimize, negative thinking. This reinforcement will cause the patient to not think so negatively when, for example, something does not go their way, and will lead to greater feelings of happiness in the patient.

Reference

Henderson, D. A. & Thompson, C. L. (2011). Counseling Children Belmont, Cengage Learning