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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) or Cognitive Therapy (CT) is a type of
psychotherapeutic intervention that attempts to reduce the suffering of painful
emotions and behavior by assuming that these negativities are the result of
faulty perceptions, concepts, and beliefs. Cognitive therapists believe that
emotional and behavioral reactions are the result not of triggering situations
but of beliefs about these situations.
CBT, which developed from behavior therapy and Rational-Emotive Therapy, is
currently in wide use for the treatment of many mental health problems,
including anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders,
mood disorders, insomnia, psychosis, negative habits, couples discord,
children’s problems, and character pathology. There are
several distinguishing features of CBT techniques; for example,
1) They follow a careful, initial assessment so that treatment
plans are specifically tailored to problems of the individual at hand;
2) With the exception of behavior therapy, they are more
widely validated and researched than any other form of clinical intervention;
3) They have similar types of assessment and intervention
procedures across disorders; e.g., keeping a cognition diary; questioning
painful beliefs; facing situations that have been inappropriately avoided; and
experimenting with different and more positive behavior in the face of
challenging circumstances; and
4) They are “present-oriented”, focusing upon what can be done
to solve a problem in the here-and-now, as opposed to psychoanalytic approaches
which are more explorative, focusing upon greater understanding of how problems
developed in the past.
CBT has shown very good results in numerous studies comparing it with medication
and/or to other psychotherapies for the treatment of anxiety disorders (Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia)
and depression. One of the most
encouraging results of this research is that CBT often reduces relapse rates
significantly once therapeutic gains have been observed
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