COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY
 Albert Ellis (1913-2007)

 KEY CONCEPTS

• Psychological problems may be rooted into childhood, they are reinforced by present ways of thinking.
• Person's belief system is the primary cause of the disorder.
• Internal dialogue plays a central role in one's behavior.
• Clients focus on examining faulty assumptions and misconceptions and on replacing these effective beliefs. (Corey,2009)

GOALS OF THERAPY

• To teach clients to confront faulty beliefs with contradictory evidence that the gather and evaluate.
• To help clients seek out their faulty beliefs and minimize them.
• To become aware of automatic thoughts and to change them. (Corey,2009)

TECHNIQUES

Therapist use a variety of cognitive, emotive, and behavioral techniques: 

• diverse methods are tailored to suit individual clients, an active, directive, time-limited, present-centered, psychoeducational, and structured therapy.
• engaging in Socratic dialogue, collaborative empiricism, debating irrational beliefs, carrying out homework assignments, gathering data on assumptions one has made, keeping a record of activities, learning new coping skills, changing one's language and thinking patterns, role playing, imagery, confronting faulty beliefs, self-instructional training, and stress inoculation training. (Corey,2009)

FOUNDERS

• Albert Ellis (1913-2007)
• Aaron Beck (1921-       )
• Judith Beck (1954-       )
• Donald Meichenbaum (1940-     ) (Corey,2009)

 

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and practice of counseling and psycotherapy. Fullerton: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.