CBT: How therapy works

Cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) has become one of the most popular models of therapy. It is a practical, goal-orientated approach which helps people to identify those thinking and behavioural patterns that are contributing to their distress and to restructure and alter them so as to feel and react in a more appropriate way.

In this series, two South African clinical psychologists and specialist CBT therapists, Bradley Drake and Jaco Rossouw, of the Centre for Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy, take you through an introduction of this therapeutic model:

What is CBT?

The history of CBT

Basic CBT theory

A conceptual schema that explains the theory

What does CBT essentially target?

What are irrational or dysfunctional beliefs?

How does CBT typically work?

Is it not necessary to uncover the past in order to really understand people's problems?

Should one think objectively about everything and then never experience negative emotions?

How to find a CBT therapist