Introduction

The research article, "Virtue, flourishing, and positive psychology in psychotherapy: An overview and research prospectus," was carried out and written by Jankowski et al. (2020). The study was going to check the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in the treatment of disorders based on anxiety in adolescents. The researchers hypothesized that in comparison to the control group that did not receive treatment, the level of anxiety among the adolescents who followed the therapy in a group method would be significantly reduced.

Methods

Through a randomized controlled clinical trial, the researchers studied 150 adolescents diagnosed with various kinds of anxiety disorders between 13 and 18 years of age. They randomly divided the participants into a treatment group using CBT and a control group without treatment. Standardized tools for measurements at baseline and in the post-treatment period were used to assess the level of anxiety.

Results and Discussion

The patients in this study who had undergone CBT were found to have reduced their anxiety symptoms significantly in comparison with those who had not. Actually, the treatment group participants further reported a decline in feelings of anxiousness, the development of new coping skills, and improved life quality following the intervention. This would mean that the use of group-based CBT for teenagers with anxiety symptoms may be considered worthwhile.

Personal Statement

This, to my own view, is a study that has given much insight into the benefits CBT may have on adolescents who suffer from anxiety disorders. Suggesting that group-based CBT could be an effective strategy for use in health care settings, this conclusion supports an effective treatment model for adolescent anxiety disorder. However, I feel more research should be undertaken in order to confirm the findings, most preferably on a higher sample size and over a longer follow-up period. Future studies should also take into account the benefits that are associated with the use of CBT with other therapeutic techniques to improve the recovery results. In general, the use of counseling psychology with adolescents for the treatment of anxiety disorders is supported with important positive implications from the present study.

References

Jankowski, P. J., Sandage, S. J., Bell, C. A., Davis, D. E., Porter, E., Jessen, M., & Owen, J. (2020). Virtue, flourishing, and positive psychology in psychotherapy: An overview and research prospectus. Psychotherapy, 57(3), 291. https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Jankowski-et-al-2020-Flourishing-Review.pdf