Health ministry of republic of moldova the university of medicine and pharmacy nicolae testemiţanu

 
3. Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Some behavior-oriented therapy methods are used to alter not only 
overt behavior, but also the thought patterns that drive it. This type of 
treatment is known as 
cognitive-behavioral therapy
(or just cognitive 
therapy). Its 
goal is to help people break out of distorted, harmful pat-
terns of thinking and replace them with healthier ones.
Cognitive therapy 
is an approach to psychotherapy that uses 
thought patterns to change moods and behaviors, a therapeutic method 
based on the principle that maladaptive moods and behavior can be 
changed by replacing altered or inappropriate ways of thinking with 
thought patterns that are more desirable and more realistic.
In cognitive-behavioral therapy, a therapist may talk to the client, 
pointing out illogical thought patterns, or use a variety of techniques, 
such as thought substitution, in which a frightening or otherwise negati-
ve thought is driven out by substituting a pleasant thought in its place. 
Pioneers in the development of cognitive behavior
 
therapy include 
Albert Ellis
 
(1929), who developed rational-emotive therapy (RET) in 
the 1950s, and Aaron Beck (1921-), whose cognitive therapy has been 
widely used for depression
 
and anxiety. Cognitive behavior therapy has 
become increasingly popular since the 1970s. Growing numbers of 
therapists have come to believe that their patients’ cognitive processes 
play an important role in determining the effectiveness of treatment. 
Currently, almost 70% of the members of the Association for the 
Advancement of Behavior Therapy identify themselves as cognitive 
behaviorists. Like behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy tends to 
be short-term (often between 10 and 20 sessions), and it focuses on the 
client’s present situation in contrast to the emphasis on past history that 
is a prominent feature of Freudian psychoanalysis
 
and other psychody-
namically oriented therapies. The therapeutic process begins with identi-
fication of distorted perceptions and thought patterns that are causing or 
contributing to the client’s problems, often through detailed record kee-
ping by the client. 

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138 
Some 
self-defeating ways of thinking
identified by Aaron Beck in-
clude: 
–
all-or-nothing thinking;
–
magnifying or minimizing the importance of an event;
–
overgeneralization (drawing extensive conclusions from a single 
event);
–
personalization (taking things too personally);
–
selective abstraction (giving disproportionate weight to negative 
events);
–
arbitrary inference (drawing illogical conclusions from an 
event); and
–
automatic thoughts (habitual negative, scolding thoughts such as 
“You can’t do anything right”).
Once negative ways of thinking have been identified, the therapist 
helps the client work on replacing them with more adaptive ones. This 
process involves a repertoire of techniques, including self-evaluation, 
positive self-talk, control of negative thoughts and feelings, and accurate 
assessment of both external situations and of the client’s own emotional 
state. Clients practice these techniques alone, with the therapist, and 
also, wherever possible, in the actual settings in which stressful situa-
tions occur (
in vivo
), gradually building up confidence in their ability