Provide a 7 pages analysis while answering the following question: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Provide a 7 pages analysis while answering the following question: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required. The field psychotherapy is characterized by numerous theories seeking to explain the occurrence of many different psychiatric disorders. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is founded on the cognitive model which addresses the way that individuals perceive situations and the subsequent effects that these perceptions have on the behavior of an individual in terms of Thoughts, actions, and feelings. When individuals undergo bad experiences that, for example, cause them distress, their perspectives on reality are affected causing them to have distorted thoughts. In line with this, cognitive behavioral therapy is meant to help individuals with unrealistic perceptions identify the causes of such perceptions and in turn change their behavior. In essence, therefore, cognitive behavioral therapy is all about effecting behavior change by solving perception problems.

The history of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) dates back to the classical period when human problems were addressed through the behavioral approach. In particular, according to Dobson (2009), the radical approach to behavior drew from the principles of operant and classical conditioning to effect behavior change. However, the idea of associating human behavior with cognitive processes had not been explored until the 1950s, until the rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) was introduced by Albert Ellis. This theory uses the A-B-C framework in order to understand the client’s behavior, feelings, events, and thoughts (Westbrook, Kennerley & Kirk, 2011). Here, the therapist analyses the activating events, the client’s beliefs, and the consequences of negative behavior ensuing from the events and beliefs.

The idea of CBT is the brainchild of Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist who practiced in the 1960s. Aaron discovered that during therapy sessions, clients seemed to be feeling and thinking about something but did not fully report such kind of thinking to the therapist.