Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a therapeutic model with the aim of reducing emotional suffering by reducing unrealistic thoughts and beliefs (called cognitive distortions), and harmful behaviors.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy has been shown to have high efficacy in treating a variety of mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety. In fact, the National Institute of Health refers to CBT as the current gold standard of psychotherapy.
John Mathews, LCSW at Virginia Counseling, has been practicing psychotherapy in the Greater Richmond area since 2009 and draws heavily from cognitive-behavioral therapy in his work with clients.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy gained prominence during the “cognitive revolution” of the 1950s, lead by early proponents Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck. CBT therapists seek to provide tangible skills (coping skills) to help their clients with emotion management and emotional regulation in the immediate-term. This contrasts with earlier, longer-term therapeutic models like Freudian psychoanalysis, which seeks to resolve emotional distress through the processing of past experiences and events.
You may be interested to know that cognitive-behavioral therapy has roots much further back in time than the 1950s. In developing their early CBT models, both Ellis and Beck drew inspiration from Stoicism, an ancient Greek school of philosophy that flourished in the 3rd century BC. Stoics believed that the proper use of logic and ethics were the key to a good life, and that suffering occurs when one’s beliefs or expectations stray from reality or are unjust in nature.
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