Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Jenna Schmidt, Paul Singh, Anne Roach
History
• Psychological distress stems from faulty or
damaging mental processing from an experience
• Deal with cognitions, interpretations, beliefs and
responses, with the aim of influencing problematic
emotions and behaviors.
• Reorganization of one’s self-statements will result
in a corresponding reorganization of one’s
behavior.
Albert Ellis
 Rational Emotive Therapy (REBT)
 Goal of Happiness
 ABC Model
 Eleven irrational beliefs
You FEEL the way you THINK
 It is not the events taking place in our lives
that upset us
 It is the beliefs that we hold that cause us to
become depressed, anxious, enraged, etc.
The Goal of Happiness
 We want to be happy whether we are
alone or with others
 We want to be well informed and
educated
 We want a good job with good pay
 We want to enjoy our leisure time
ABC MODEL
A. Something happens
B. You have a belief about the situation
C. You have an emotional reaction to the belief
Ellis’s Model
ABC Model of Emotional Disturbance
A
B
C
Belief
Emotional
Consequence
A
B
C
Difficulty
Understanding
Math Text
I’ll never
get this!
Feeling
Miserable
Activating
Event
For Example:
D- Disputing Intervention
 The therapists disputes the client’s irrational
beliefs
- “Why must you win everyone’s approval?”
- “Where is it written that other people must
treat you fairly?”
- “Just because you want something, why must
you have it?”
E- Effective New Philosophy
 The client learns new ways to substitute
more adaptive thoughts in place of the
beliefs that often involve unrealistic and
over-generalized attributions
- “I don’t’ need everyone’s approval”
- “Others don’t need to treat me fairly”
F- Feelings (new)
 The client’s new trains of thought lead
to more effective and rational behavior
- “I can approval by my boss by going
above and beyond what is expected of
me”
- “I really want that new Channel purse,
after I save my money, I will buy it”
ABC MODEL
 Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxUKR1f_WA
11 Irrational Beliefs
1. Essential for a person to be loved or approved
2. A person must be perfectly complete
3. Some people are bad, and should be
punished.
4. It is terrible when things are not as a person
wants them to be.
5. Unhappiness caused by outside
circumstances; person has no control over it.
6. Dangerous, fearsome things cause for great
concern; possibilities must be dwelt on.
Irrational Beliefs cont.
7. It is easier to avoid certain difficulties than
to face them.
8. A person should be dependent on others.
9. Past experience and events are the
determinants of present behaviors
10. A person should be upset over other
people’s problems and disturbances.
11. There is always a right perfect solution to
every problem, and it must be found.
Activity
Aaron Beck
• Cognitive Therapy
• Recognizing & changing negative, maladaptive
thoughts
• Reorganization of self-statements will result in
a corresponding reorganizing of behavior.
Beck’s
Model of Emotional
Disturbances
I’m
Incompetent
Difficulty
Understanding
Math Text
I’ll never
get this!
( Activating
Event )
( Automatic
Thought )
( Core
Belief )
Feeling
Miserable
( Emotional
Consequence )
(Livingston, 2008)
Beck’s Cognitive Triad
• Depressed people are plagued by
a cognitive triad of beliefs:
1.The client sees self as “defective,
inadequate, diseased, and deprived”
2.Client interprets experience as
negative
3.Client sees the future as continuing in
a grim fashion and expect failure
http://slabbed.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/depression-becks-theory3.jpg
Beck’s Model of Emotional
Disturbance
Activating
Event
Automatic
Thought
Emotional
Consequence
(Livingston, 2008)
Example of: Mood Log
Automatic
Thoughts:
Distortions
Rational Response
My mind will just
wander like
yesterday.
I can’t remember
anything I read.
I can’t possibly
read 200 pages
this week…
(Livingston, 2008)
Goals of Cognitive Therapy:
 Change the way a client thinks by
using automatic thoughts and schema
restructuring
 Cognitive Schemas contain
peoples perceptions of themselves
and others, their goals and
expectations, memories, fantasies,
and previous learning.
Therapy
 Brief & Structured
 Problem Solving
 Goals:
• Change irrational beliefs into rational beliefs
• for the client to develop a new way of thinking
and substitute
it for an old way that has not worked well
• Client can become own therapist for future
Therapeutic Relationship
 Collaborative
 Persuasive Teacher
 Model Behavior
Techniques
 Ellis’s ABC Model
 Beck’s Cognitive Triad
 Collaborative Empiricism
 Socratic Dialogue
Training
- Albert Ellis Institute, New York, NY
- Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy &
Research, Bala Cynwyd, PA
Certifications Offered
by the National Association of
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists
Diploma in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Certified Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist
Benefits
 Brief form of therapy
 REBT effective for helping people in crisis
 Affective for individuals, groups, coupled, or
families
 Discourages dependence on the therapist
 Has emphasis on outside work
Risks/Limitations/Criticisms

Prescriptive Model

Cultural Concerns

Unfinished Business

Brainwashing
Most Common Theories (400 Theories)
(Livingston, 2008)
References
• Corey, G. (2004). Theory and practice of counseling
and psychotherapy: student manual (7th ed). Pacific
Grove, CA: Brooks Cole Company.
• Cormier, S., Nurius, P., Osborn, C. (2003). Interviewing
and change strategies for helpers (6th ed). Belmont,
CA: Brooks Cole Company
• Corsini, R.J., & Wedding, D. (2000). Current
psychotherapies (6th ed). Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock
Publisher, Inc.
• Day, S.X. (2008). Theory and design in counseling and
psychotherapy (2nd ed.). Boston: Lahaska Press.
• Livingston, T. M. (2008). Behavioral therapies &
cognitive behavioral therapies. Counseling Theories. St.
Cloud: St. Cloud State University.