What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that has been shown by more than a thousand research studies to be effective across a wide swath of behavioral health (e.g., substance abuse and dependence, chronic pain), mental health concerns (e.g., depression, anxiety, suicidality, schizophrenia), and other chronic stressors (e.g. intimate relationships, parenting challenges). For more information on how CBT can be used with a wide range of conditions, check out this article.

CBT is, at its heart, a collaboration between a person seeking wellness and a trained provider, focused on building skills and solving problems to help people reach their own individualized goals. Therapists develop a case conceptualization, based on the client’s life experiences and patterns of cognition, emotion, and behavior to create a roadmap for treatment. Clients then learn skills to help them better understand their patterns of thinking, acting, and feeling – and when those patterns are not serving them, to shift those responses to help them to move toward the things that are most important to them.

CBT embraces the spirit of the recovery movement to help frame therapy as a strength- and wellness-based approach to treating the whole person, rather than just their symptoms. Done well, CBT also emphasizes a culturally responsive stance in which the therapist actively recognizes and respects the cultural identities and experiences of each client, using this understanding to tailor their interactions and practices to better connect with and support clients - essentially valuing cultural differences to promote inclusivity and meaningful engagement. To learn more, start here!

Given the push toward evidence-based practices, and the strong empirical support for CBT, many therapists claim to practice CBT. However, research from the Penn Collaborative and others have shown that some therapists may believe that they are delivering CBT but may actually be missing some essential elements. Only with intensive training and applied practice (including evaluation and feedback about developing CBT skills) can a therapist, supervisor, or administrator be certain that CBT is being delivered as intended. Access to this kind of training and feedback can be very hard to find, but artificial intelligence (AI) offers a highly scalable tool with the potential to dramatically broaden access. Interested in learning more about how AI can be useful in the scaling up of access to high-quality care? Read more here!

The Penn Collaborative provides training, consultation, and evaluation of transdiagnostic CBT skills to organizations in the United States and around the world. Learn more about the Penn Collaborative’s training program, the Penn Beck Community Initiative, here.