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Cognitive therapy

Type of psychotherapy

  • 9 min read
  • 3 chapters

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Cognitive therapy is based on the cognitive model (which states that thoughts, feelings, and behavior are connected), with substantial influence from the heuristics and biases research program of the 1970s, which found a wide variety of cognitive biases and distortions that can contribute to mental illness.

History

Precursors of certain aspects of cognitive therapy have been identified in various old traditions.

Albert Ellis worked on cognitive treatment methods from the 1950s (Ellis, 1956). He called his approach Rational Therapy (RT) at first, then Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) and later Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT).

Becoming disillusioned with long-term psychodynamic approaches based on gaining insight into unconscious emotions, in the late 1950s Aaron T. Beck came to the conclusion that the way in which his patients perceived and attributed meaning in their daily lives—a process known as cognition—was a key to therapy.

Beck introduced his cognitive therapy approach in Depression: Causes and Treatment (1967), later expanding its application to include anxiety disorders in Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1976), and eventually addressing a wider range of psychological conditions. He also introduced a focus on the underlying "schema"—the underlying ways in which people process information about the self, the world or the future.

This new cognitive approach came into conflict with the behaviorism common at the time, which claimed that talk of mental causes was not scientific or meaningful, and that assessing stimuli and behavioral responses was the best way to practice psychology. However, the 1970s saw a general "cognitive revolution" in psychology. Behavioral modification techniques and cognitive therapy techniques became joined, giving rise to a common concept of cognitive behavioral therapy. Although cognitive therapy has often included some behavioral components, advocates of Beck's particular approach sought to maintain and establish its integrity as a distinct, standardized form of cognitive behavioral therapy in which the cognitive shift is the key mechanism of change.

Aaron and his daughter Judith S. Beck founded the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research in 1994. This was later renamed the "Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy."

In 1995, Judith released Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond, a treatment manual endorsed by her father Aaron.

As cognitive therapy continued to grow in popularity, the non-profit "Academy of Cognitive Therapy" was created in 1998 to accredit cognitive therapists, create a forum for members to share research and interventions, and to educate the public about cognitive therapy and related mental health issues. The academy later changed its name to the "Academy of Cognitive & Behavioral Therapies".

The 2011 second edition of "Basics and Beyond" (also endorsed by Aaron T. Beck) was titled Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Basics and Beyond, Second Edition, and adopted the name "CBT" for Aaron's therapy from its beginning. This further blurred the boundaries between the concepts of "CT" and "CBT".

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