cognitive behavioral therapy

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a structured, time-limited psychotherapeutic approach that treats psychological distress by identifying and modifying maladaptive patterns of thought — cognitive distortions — and the corresponding behavioural patterns that perpetuate them, based on the principle that thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are interconnected and that changing one domain produces change in the others; CBT was developed from Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy and Albert Ellis's rational emotive behaviour therapy in the 1960s–1970s and has the largest evidence base of any psychological treatment, with clinical trial support for depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, OCD, eating disorders, chronic pain, and many other conditions; treatment involves psychoeducation, thought records, behavioural experiments, and homework assignments that develop the client's capacity for independent self-monitoring and cognitive restructuring