Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has become an increasingly used form of therapy over the last 40 years. There are many people and developments in psychology and psychiatry over time that has influenced the growth and prevalence of CBT. Aaron T Beck, considered to be the «father» of cognitive therapy (which is one of the many forms of CBT), has been one of the most influential contributors to modern CBT. While Beck was seeing patients as a psychoanalyst, he noticed his depressed patients had similar cognitive distortions. He found that his patients had many thoughts that they were not reporting in the sessions. The patients had many thoughts that they felt about themselves that they don’t normally share, which Beck termed as «automatic thoughts». Beck found that people are not aware of their automatic thoughts until they start focusing on the thoughts. He also saw that his depressed patients tended to have a negative view of themselves, a negative view of their environment, and a negative view of the future; he termed this the «negative triad». Beck started to focus on the negative thoughts of his patients and saw that his patients got better in 10 to 12 sessions. Even those who he thought would be with him in therapy for a year or two responded quickly to his new approach as well. Beck emphasized the importance of schemas in depression. Beck wrote, «On the basis of this matrix of schemas, the individual is able to orient himself in relation to time and space and categorize and interpret experiences in a meaningful way» (Beck, 1976). Drawing from Dr. Jeffrey Young’s early maladaptive schemas, Beck proposed that schemas are developed during childhood and the schemas are usually out of awareness and dormant until an event activates the schemas. These maladaptive schemas that the people formed during childhood predispose the depressed patient to distorted cognitions, leading to a negative triad and depression. Overall, Beck’s cognitive model says that the negative cognitive triad is the core of depression. The model also assumes that cognition, behavior and biochemistry all play a role in depression. People develop maladaptive schemas in the childhood, which are activated later on when a life event stimulates the schema. The focus of cognitive therapy is «to change the person’s negative cognitions by behavioral experiments, logical discourse, examination of evidence, role playing, imagery restructuring, as well as other techniques» (Young, Weinberger, & Beck, 2001). Beck’s cognitive therapy for depression has become the most researched approach and the research has shown consistent success in effectiveness. For example, there have been multiple studies that looked at cognitive therapy versus tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) treatments for outpatients with depression. The outcomes of these studies have consistently shown that cognitive therapy is at least as effective as TCAs at termination of treatment (Young et al., 2001). Cognitive-behavioral therapy is not just used for depression. It can be used to treat other disorders such as social phobia, panic disorders, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, eating disorders, and Obsessive-Compulsive disorders. Works CitedBeck, A.T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International Universities Press.Young, J., Weinberger, A., & Beck, A. (2001). Cognitive Therapy for Depression. In David Barlow, Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders (3rd ed., pp. 264- 308). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Category:Home › Other • Pomegranates: A newly discovered superfood • Where did the joke why did the chicken cross the road come from and why is it funny? • Can mothers diagnosed with bipolar disorder make good parents? • Spiritual evolution of human consciousness • Tips for getting a college basketball scholarship • Living with Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) • Caring for the caregiver • Technologys impact on society