COUN1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Aaron T. Beck, Cognitive Therapy, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
25 May 2018
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WEEK 10: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
- Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis – founders of CBT
- Aaron Beck influenced by Freud thinking
- CBT – thought processes influence everything
- In early 1960’s Aaron developed an approach known as cognitive therapy as a
result of his research on depression
- In psychoanalytic depression was thought to be based on retroflective hostility –
but his findings did not support the psychoanalytic
- His observations of clients revealed that they had negative bias in their
interpretation of certain life vents, which contributed to their cognitive distortions
- Beck believed that depression was the condition of the mind
Definition:
- CBT is the process of teaching, coaching, and reinforcing positive behaviours.
CBT helps people to identify patterns or thoughts and emotions that are linked
with behaviours
- Active process and short lived process
- Thinking: different people can think differently about the same event. The way in
which we think about an event influences how we feel and act. A classic example
is that when looking at a glass of water filled halfway, one person will see it half
empty and feel discouraged and the other sees it half full and feels optimistic.
- Behaviour: what we do affects how we feel and think. The individual, who deals
with an upcoming exam by putting off his studies until the last minute, is likely to
experience more distress on the day of the exam than an individual who has
studied well in advance. CBT helps people to learn new behaviours and new
ways of coping with evens, often involving the learning of particular skills.
- Therapy: besides its special focus on the relationships between how we think,
feel and behave, the following are fundamental to the practice of CBT
➢ Qualities of the therapeutic relationship
➢ Goal-setting
➢ Focus on the present
➢ Structure
- CBT has been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment of a variety of
conditions including mood, anxiety, personality eating, substance abuse, and
psychotic disorders
- CBT is a type of psychotherapy that is different from traditional psychodynamic
psychotherapy in that the therapist and the patient will actively work together to
help the patient recover from their mental illness
- Someone is willing and able to participate in therapy, they are willing to
communicate, their feelings are accessible through their communications
- CBT can help you to change how you think (cognitive) and what you do
(behaviour)
- These changes can help you feel better. Unlike some of the other treatments, it
focuses on the “here and now” problems and difficulties.
- Instead of focusing on the causes of your distress or symptoms in the past, it
looks for ways to improve your state of mind!
Theoretical assumptions of CBT:
- CBT is based on the theoretical rationale that the way people feel and behave is
determined by how the perceive and structure their experience
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