Describe One Major Therapeutic Approach in Clinical Psychology and Using Appropriate Evidence, Evaluate Its Efficacy.

Describe one major therapeutic approach in clinical psychology and using appropriate evidence, evaluate its efficacy.
The definition of ‘therapeutic’ is a way of treating disease and relieving pain, therefore a therapeutic approach in a clinical environment uses a number of techniques to restore patients to health.         Therapeutic approaches usually involve one to one sessions with a trained therapist or psychiatrist, where patients are able to freely talk about their problems instead of using pharmacotherapy which involves the use of drug treatments prescribed by the patient’s doctor. In some instances depending on the individual, it can be found that a combination of a therapeutic approach and pharmacotherapy is more effective than using one individual treatment alone.   One therapeutic intervention that is commonly used in clinical psychology is cognitive behavioural therapy otherwise known as CBT.
Cognitive behavioural therapy was developed by Albert Ellis and it is based on the theory that it is how we think about an event that affects us not the event itself. CBT can be used in order to help patients alter their way of thinking and patterns of behaviour, it is a therapy that focuses on the present and how to improve the way of life for the patient rather than using other therapies such as psychodynamic therapy which has an emphasises on the past and how past experiences of the client can affect their conscious and unconscious thoughts and behaviour.

Cognitive behavioural therapy works on the basis that positive change can only occur when the client changes their way of thinking about various situations. The therapy usually takes a similar course with all patients. The therapist and patient will look at individual problems and break them up into separate parts; once any negative thought processes or behaviour has been identified the patient is then able to work through these issues.   However with CBT the therapist can only do so much, there is a...