Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

1358 Words3 Pages

Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT) is made up of a number of basic principles that recognize that thoughts, feelings and behaviors are interrelated. CBT emcompasses several different types of therapies that share a common element. One of the earliest forms of CBT was developed in the 1950’s by Albert Ellis; this form is called Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). REBT “is heavily cognitive and philosophical, and specifically uncovers clients’ irrational or dysfunctional beliefs and actively and directively disputes them” PAGE 1370 (Ellis,) . Another early form of CBT is Cognitive Therapy which was developed by Aaron T Beck in the 1960’s. Cognitive Therapy is similar to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy however, Cognitive Therapy is …show more content…

Second, Cognitive Therapy is built around the idea that a therapist serves as a teacher for the patient, “The task of the cognitive-behavioral therapist is to act as a diagnostician, educator, and consultant who assesses distorted or deficient cognitive activities and dysfunctional behavior patterns and works with the client to design learning experiences that remediate dysfunctional cognition, behavior, and affective patterns” (Kendall, 1985), rather than having a warm, close and personal relationship which is an active element in REBT. Albert Bandura introduced the idea of using cognition within the behavioral tradition. “Bandura’s social learning research highlighted the importance of the perception of reinforcement and the modeling effect in which individuals learn by observing others” (Dowd, et al., 2010). It was with his developments, accompanied by previous studies by Ellis and Beck, that merged together to create the concept of therapy where clients, and their therapist seek to identify and change undesirable …show more content…

There are several principles outlined within the framework of CBT: thinking, cognitions and behavioral change. The concept of thinking is commonly confused with one’s emotions; in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, one must first identify and differentiate their feelings from their thoughts. The feelings that are identified and shared may instead be thoughts and beliefs that are expressed in an emotional statement. Cognitions affect behavior and behavioral responses come from the process of rewarding or unrewarding consequences, indicating that cognitions can be changed and monitored. Lastly, behavioral change allows clients to focus on their misconceptions which can result in the realization that change may be

Open Document