Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive therapy is a form of psychotherapy, developed by Aaron Beck, that treats problematic behaviors and distressing emotional responses by identifying and correcting unhelpful and inaccurate patterns of thinking. In cognitive therapy the individual works with a therapist to develop skills for testing and changing beliefs, identifying distorted thinking, relating to others in different ways and changing behaviors, on the premise that a person's emotional and behavioral responses are shaped by how they interpret events rather than by the events themselves. The approach emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as cognitive techniques were integrated with earlier behavioral methods, and it now sits within the broader family of cognitive behavioral therapies while remaining identifiable as Beck's own specific model.