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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ( Cbt ) Essay

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an insight-focused therapy that emphasizes the here-and-now. It is typically brief and time-limited, collaborative in nature, fairly structured and empirically based (Freeman, Felgoise, Nezu, Nezu, & Reinecke, 2005). Aaron Beck is a major name that arises when discussing the origins of CBT. Beck (1970) contends that individual perceptions of events shape feelings and behaviors. This theory places emphasis on the concept of automatic thoughts. Automatic thoughts are linked to the client’s core beliefs about self and worldview. When a client’s automatic thoughts are maladaptive, it can often be traced to irrational core beliefs; this in turn elicits emotional and behavioral difficulty. In other words, this phenomenon describes what Beck termed “cognitive distortions” which are unrealistic negative thoughts and beliefs that influence perception of events, feelings, and reactions (Beck, 1970). Beck originally defined six types of cognitive distortions: arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, overgeneralization, magnification and minimization, personalization, and dichotomous thinking; mislabeling was later added. Arbitrary inference refers to the cognitive process of forming conclusions despite lack of evidence or evidence that is contrary to the conclusions; this is often where catastrophizing can be seen. Selective abstraction is the process of drawing conclusions based on select detail of an event while disregarding all other aspects

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