Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – Beck Institute

CBT is a psychotherapeutic treatment designed to help clients understand the thoughts and feelings that influence behaviors, and is commonly used to treat a wide range of disorders, including phobias, addictions, depression and anxiety. This therapy is highly goal-oriented and focused, and the client and therapist work together as collaborators toward mutually-established goals. During initial treatment, clients learn how to identify and change destructive or disturbing thought patterns that have a negative influence on behavior and emotions. Subsequent treatments focus on the actual behaviors that are contributing to the problem. The client begins to learn and practice new skills that can be used in real-world situations. The goal of CBT is to teach clients that, while they cannot control every aspect of the world around them, they can control how they interpret and deal with items in their environment. Stage of change: Contemplative, determination, action, maintenance.