Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: Aaron T.

Beck

Aaron T. Beck, born 1921 in Rhode Island, spent most of his career studying psychoanalysis. In the
1960s, Beck's research deviated significantly focusing on how distorted thoughts often leads to
problematic behaviours. Beck states that his methods were born from the struggle he experienced in
trying to find a way to help his depressed clients better capture their emotions. Beck realised that
clients who suffered from depression were experiencing recurring negative thoughts and that as
long as they believed these thoughts to be true, they would continue to have symptoms
of depression (Good Therapy, 2015).

Beck believes that a person’s reaction to specific upsetting thoughts may contribute to abnormality
and that as we confront situations that arise in life, upsetting thoughts can come into our heads;
Beck refers to these as unbidden cognitive automatic thoughts. When a person’s stream of
automatic thoughts is very negative, quite often these negative thoughts will persist even in the face
of contrary evidence.

Beck identified three mechanisms that he thought were responsible for depression:

1. The cognitive triad (of negative automatic thinking)

2. Negative self schemas
3. Errors in Logic (i.e. faulty information processing)

Cognitive therapy (CT) perceives psychological problems as an exaggeration of a response resulting

from cognitive distortions. It aims to help clients understand the links between their thoughts,
behaviours, emotions, physical responses, and situations (Corey, 2015, p.284). It centres around the
recognition and changing of unrealistic thoughts and maladaptive beliefs; these beliefs, according to
Beck, can affect mood and overall mental health. Automatic thoughts such as preparing to fail
reveal negative core beliefs that can lead to depression. CT helps to educate depressed people about
their habitual thought patterns and helps them develop alternative thought patterns, as well as
strategies for eliminating unhealthy, automatic thoughts.

The length and course of CT can vary greatly from client to client as it is determined by specific
diagnoses. For example; Cognitive therapy for depression generally lasts 16-20 sessions and begins
with behavioural activation. Corey states that activity is central to the therapeutic process in detail
with depression and that it has an antidepressant effect. Clients are encouraged to rate their moods
in relation to different activities they engage in throughout the day and these observations are used
as guides to find activities that provide a mood boost over the therapeutic process. As the depression
begins to lift, the therapist introduces other activities such as thought records to identify negative
automatic thoughts and test them for evidence. When evidence does not support these thoughts then
the client is encouraged to generate alternative explanations that are not negative and then create an
action plan to solve the problem (Corey, 2015, p.288).

Corey states that Cognitive therapy helps clients to learn how to identify their dysfunctional
thinking (cognitive distortions) and then examine and weigh the evidence for and against them.
‘The process involves testing the clients thoughts by looking for evidence, actively engaging in a
Socratic dialogue with the therapist, carrying out homework assignments, doing behavioural
experiments, gathering data on assumptions made, and forming alternative interpretations’ (Corey,
2015, p.285). Beck states that effective Cognitive Therapists must combine empathy and sensitivity
with technical competence in order to achieve maximum success with the client. This is both similar
and contrasting to Carl Rogers Person-Centered approach where the core therapeutic conditions
(empathy, congruity, and unconditional positive regard) are viewed by cognitive therapists as ‘being
necessary but not sufficient, to proud optimum therapeutic effect’ (Corey, 2015, p.286). CT
encourages a client to understand how the past affects present behaviours and thoughts. Armed with
this knowledge, clients are then able to begin to transform learned reactions that cause problems in
their present lives.