Cognitive therapy has been strengthened by including interventions focused on emotions and imagery

Early critics of cognitive therapy often suggested that cognitive therapists tended to ignore the need for emotional change during therapy – especially for methods of emotional change not based on changing cognitions. Cognitive therapists have gradually responded to this critique by expanding the scope for using emotion-based techniques such as Paul Gilbert’s compassion-focused imagery work and Gestalt chair-work. Robert Leahy has developed a useful framework for reconceptualising cognitive therapy work with emotions based around his notion of ‘emotional schemas’.