Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a treatment that focuses on the relationship between an individual's thought, feelings, and behaviors. A CBT therapist will try to explore the links between the thoughts and emotions that occur prior to disruptive behaviors in people with mental illness. By establishing these connections, individuals learn to identify and change inappropriate or negative thought patterns and as a consequence, can address the behaviors associated with their illness.

A common goal is to recognize negative thoughts or mind-sets (mental processes such as perceiving, remembering, reasoning, decision making, and problem solving) and to replace them with positive thoughts, which will lead to more appropriate and beneficial behavior. For instance, CBT tries to replace thoughts that lead to low self-esteem ("I can't do anything right") with positive expectations ("I can do this correctly"). This can often times involve "homework" to help an individual "practice their skills" in between treatment sessions.

CBT is often thought of as a "first=line treatment" in many anxiety disorders (including OCD. Panic Disorder, and PTSD). Along with medication treatment, CBT can successfully help people with mood disorders, ADHD, depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, OCD, substance abuse problems and other mental illnesses.