Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

“Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair.”

Aaron T. Beck

Aaron Beck developed cognitive behavioural therapy in the 1960’s. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that helps people learn how to identify and change the destructive or disturbing thought patterns that have a negative influence on their behaviour and emotions. CBT aims to help people manage their problems by changing how they think and behave. It is a structured therapy, usually aimed at a specific problem and is usually time limited. Cognitive therapy focuses on how thoughts can create feelings and moods, and how what you believe can keep problems going. Behavioural therapy helps you to overcome problems by changing your behaviour. Cognitive behavioural therapy focuses on changing the automatic negative thoughts that can contribute to and worsen our emotional difficulties, depression, and anxiety. Cognitive behaviour therapy is a structured and goal-oriented form of therapy. The approach is hands-on and practical, the therapist and patient working in a collaborative manner with the goal of modifying patterns of thinking and behaviour to bring about a beneficial change in the client’s mood and way of living their life. It is used to help a wide range of problems, and appropriate treatment protocols are used depending on the diagnosis and problems the patient is facing. These problems include: addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic pain, anger management, eating disorders.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cognitive-behavior-therapy-2795747