ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the historical milestones that led to the development and evolution of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) as an umbrella term for different approaches and interventions. It focuses on the traditional cognitive therapy as developed by Beck and colleagues, whose main therapeutic method – called cognitive restructuring – aims to change unhelpful ways of thinking and reinforce more helpful alternatives. The chapter demonstrates how cognitive restructuring can be used in the craft of caring for people who feel anxious, distressed, sad or hopeless. Behaviour therapy, the earliest form of CBT, is based on the clinical application of learning theories, which state that people’s behaviour is determined by the rewards or the relief they experience or expect as a consequence of this behaviour. A CBT formulation is a shared understanding between the therapist and the service user of what maintains a problem. Several condition-specific models can be used as templates for the formulation of individual problems.
