Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive therapy seeks to help a client overcome difficulties by identifying and changing dysfunctional thought patterns. 1. fig. 1 shows a group cognitive therapy session Clinicians use therapy sessions to help clients address and change their negative cognitive biases.  Cognitive therapy (CT) is one of the therapeutic approaches within the larger group of cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) and was first expounded by Aaron T. Beck in the 1960s.  Cognitive-based therapies have gained increasing use in the past several decades, beginning with the cognitive revolution in 1956.  CT is a psychotherapy quite distinct from other mainstream forms such as psychoanalytic or behavioral psychotherapy: rather than focusing on motivations or instincts, it is based on an information-processing model of human behavior and psychopathology.  Cognitive distortions, or exaggerated and irrational thoughts, were believed to perpetuate psychological disorders. The process of learning to refute these distortions is called cognitive restructuring.  Cognitive therapy may consist of testing a client's assumptions and identifying how client's unquestioned thoughts are distorted, unrealistic and unhelpful. Once these thoughts have been challenged, the client's feelings about the subject matter of those thoughts can be more readily changed.  Schema: A person's worldview; an outline or image universally applicable to a general conception, under which it is likely to be presented to the mind