1 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Tucker Hardy
Overview and History
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a goal-oriented, problem-focused, short-term (8 to 20 sessions) therapeutic treatment created in the 1960s by Aaron T. Beck (Boyd-Franklin et al., 2016; Martin, 2019). Beck, a psychoanalytic practitioner at the time, noticed that clients he was working with had an internal dialogue going on in their minds and theorized that if that dialogue was explored and challenged, people could change how they responded to various symptoms and situations that they were experiencing (Gillihan, 2018; Martin, 2019). CBT is focused on the here and now, where clinicians and clients work together to identify automatic-thoughts, core beliefs, feelings, and behaviors that clients are experiencing in distressful moments (Boyd-Franklin et al., 2016; Gillihan, 2018; Martin, 2019). Once those are identified, CBT focuses on changing automatic thoughts into thoughts that are more grounded in reality. This is done through a series of homework assignments, mindfulness techniques, role plays, and other various techniques that develop a client’s ability to identify negative behaviors and thoughts and change them to reflect more positive or non-reactive outcomes. (Boyd-Franklin et al., 2016; Gillihan, 2018; Martin, 2019).
Effective For:
| Anxiety and Panic Attacks | Eating Disorders | Anger and Mood Management |
| Depression | General Stress | Chronic Pain |
| PTSD | OCD | Substance Abuse and Addiction |
| Borderline Personality Disorder | Phobias | Sleep Issues |
Core Principles and Terms
Automatic Thoughts: thoughts that are instantaneous, habitual, and nonconscious that can affect a person’s mood and actions. (APA)
The aim of CBT is to identify the client’s negative automatic thoughts that lead to experiencing distressing emotional states and negative behavioral patterns.
Core Beliefs: Ideas people begin to develop in childhood that influence the ways in which they view themselves, their families, other individuals, and their world (Boyd-Franklin et al., 2016).
Thoughts-Emotions-Behaviors :
CBT is often explained through this triangle, which shows that thoughts, behaviors and emotions are interconnected and affect each other. Some charts have “core beliefs” in the middle of the triangle showing that it all starts with what we believe. (Gillihan, 2018)
Cognitive Restructuring: A technique used to help the client identify their self-defeating beliefs or cognitive distortions, refute them, and then modify them so that they are adaptive and reasonable (APA).
Cognitive Distortions or Thinking Errors: An automatic way of repeatedly interpreting a situation that causes someone to not consider other ways of thinking about it. (Beck, 2011; Boyd-Franklin et al., 2016; Gillihan, 2018; Martin, 2019)
- All-or-nothing thinking (black and white, polarized, or dichotomous thinking): If a situation or action falls short of perfect, you see it as a total failure. Example: “I’ve complet