Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on targeting and adapting dysfunctional or unhelpful thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. Through challenging unhelpful beliefs and thought patterns, as well as finding helpful alternatives, emotions and behaviours may be influenced as a result.
Sometimes, feelings of distress are rooted in a distorted or unhelpful perception of reality. These lead to thinking patterns such as catastrophising, all-or-nothing thinking, or overgeneralising. Psychiatrist, Aaron Beck, called these ‘cognitive distortions’ and found a strong link between them and mental health conditions such as depression. CBT also involves identifying and challenging specific triggers to these thought patterns, which then result in certain types of behaviour. Challenging this ABC cycle (antecedent-belief-consequence) is one of the goals of CBT.
CBT is a focused, goal-oriented, and practical form of therapy with a large sum of evidence supporting its effectiveness. However, it may take an examination of underlying issues from other approaches to explain the root of some of these thought patterns.
References & Resources
Beck, A., Rush, A., Shaw, B., & Emery, G. (1987). Cognitive Therapy of Depression. Guilford Publications.
HSE. (2023). Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy.
Retrieved from: https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/mental-health-services/dsc/communityservices/cbt.html
Psychology Today. (2024). Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy.
Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ie/basics/cognitive-behavioral-therapy