The What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)? (Archived) information handout helps your clients understand the basics of CBT.
Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
An editable Microsoft PowerPoint version of the resource.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based talking therapy used to address a wide range of difficulties. Central to CBT is the idea that our cognitions, emotional responses and behavior are all interlinked – a change in one affects all of the others. CBT proposes that our actions can inadvertently maintain and exacerbate psychological problems. This What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)? information handout is designed to introduce clients to CBT. It provides an overview of key concepts, therapeutic tasks, and examples of conditions where CBT has been shown to be effective.
This handout provides an accessible yet comprehensive explanation of CBT. Therapists can use it to:
CBT can help clients address thoughts and behaviours that contribute to low mood.
CBT is effective for treating a wide range of anxiety disorders, including generalised anxiety and social anxiety.
CBT can address problematic beliefs about shape, weight, eating, and their and control.
CBT is an evidence-based treatment for bipolar disorder, insomnia, PTSD, psychosis, and many other difficulties.
Start a conversation about the potential benefits of CBT.
Use the information handout to explore the key ideas in CBT.
Help clients reflect on how CBT might be helpful to them.
Use the handout to consolidate client learning between sessions.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based talking therapy that is used to treat a wide variety of difficulties (Hoffman et al., 2012). As the name suggests, it combines cognitive therapy and behavior therapy. Behavior therapy originated in the 1950s and focused on how learning theory could be used to promote behavior change (e.g., Wolpe, 1958). In the 1960s, cognitive therapists such as Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis extended behavioral analysis by considering how thought processes contributed to mental health difficulties, leading to the emergence of CBT (Johnstone & Dallos, 2014; Rachman, 1997). Beck is credited with developing cognitive therapy, a major component of CBT (Beck, 1967; 1976), and Ellis with the creation of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT; Ellis, 1962; 1996). Other important figures in the development of CBT include George Kelly, Micheal Mahoney, Richard Lazarus, and Donald Michenbaum (Beck, 2011; Dobson & Dozois, 2010).
CBT proposes that cognitions influence (and are influenced by) people’s emotional responses and behavior (the cognitive model). It also observes that behavior can maintain and exacerbate problematic psychological states. Accordingly, the primary aim of CBT is to help individuals identify and address patterns of thinking and behavior that contribute to their difficulties.
