What Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
'People are not disturbed by events, but by the view they take of them'. This comment by the Greek philosopher Epictetus two thousand years ago aptly reflects the basic tenet of modern cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)-that what people believe affects their emotions. CBT is structured, problem-oriented, and set in the here and now, and has rapidly become the treatment of choice for a wide range of mental health disorders. CBT combines the scientific advances made in one branch of psychology from roughly the 1930-60’s called behaviourism, with the branch of cognitive psychology, which came later around the 1970-80’s. These two branches were combined because psychologists came to the realization that thoughts, behaviors, and emotions are all interlinked as shown in the figure below. CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts lead to how we feel and how we act and that external things, such as people, situations and events play a much lesser role. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy...