Cognitive behavioral therapy is without a doubt the most widely studied psychotherapy in the world, and in some cases it is possible to study it online, over a 6-month to 2 year training program. Other students, who have completed a course in cognitive behavioral therapy training, have stated high levels of satisfaction with the training, and the subsequent use of CBT interventions. From recent studies it would seem that more than 90% of all CBT students attained at least an adequate level of skills.
Being that the areas of treatment can assist so many people in so many different situations, like self-esteem issues, bipolar, and relationship counseling, there is going to be a need for these skills and qualified people into the future. Particularly now that we are all experiencing a world filled with stress and anxiety, with no real signs of it slowing down.
With the current trend towards managed care, there is a growing need for mental health service providers, for short-term, evidence based, cognitive behavioral therapy training. (CBT) There is huge support for the efficacy of CBT for a wide range of disorders, and this is why we have seen a massive increase in the amount of research and study being conducted into this area of psychotherapy. Subsequently there are now a number of cognitive behavior therapy training programs for mental health professionals, but there is always an ongoing need to ascertain whether they are effective. This is so that we can ensure the ultimate use of resources made available.
In order to do this, various measuring techniques have been established to test and report the effectiveness of these and any future programs that are developed to help fight the condition. One such measurement is the actual level of competence that a course or program graduate can demonstrate. This therapist competence is typically inferred from therapy results, and outcome studies, rather than being directly assessed within the cognitive behavioral therapy training program.
Of course in real terms, changes in patients is the preferred measuring stick for monitoring and reporting success from within each program, although this is unreliable and insufficient because patient change can be attributed to any number of variables, not all resulting from the training course or therapist.
If however the overall effectiveness of programs is to be determined or measured by demonstrated competence levels of graduates, a reasonable definition of competence should certainly be found. There has been a small but ever growing body of research developing over recent years that examines the development of CBT competence as a direct result of cognitive behavioral therapy training programs. A large proportion of this reserach has focused on one or more of the known three areas of identified competence.
Training is designed to bring all students to a pre-defined competence level, resulting in varying amounts of input for each trainee. These studies therefore, do not measure the effect of any standard training course or program, online or offline.
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