Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Depression # 1301

Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Depression
Harvey C. Parker, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist


Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is an effective, scientifically well-established treatment for depression. Over 75% of clients show significant improvement when using CBT.

CBT combines two very effective kinds of psychotherapy—cognitive therapy and behavior therapy.

Behavior therapy helps you weaken the connections between stimuli (people, situations, or events) and your habitual, undesirable reactions to them. These undesirable reactions may include fear, sadness, anger, self-defeating or self-damaging behavior, worry, panic, etc. Behavior therapy also teaches relaxation strategies to calm the mind and body so you can feel better and think more clearly.

Cognitive therapy emphasizes the role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. Cognitive therapists instruct clients to identify unhealthy thoughts that can lead to unwanted feelings and behavior. Clients are taught how to replace unhealthy thoughts with healthier thoughts that lead to more desirable reactions.

When combined into CBT, behavior therapy and cognitive therapy provide very powerful tools for stopping symptoms of worry, fear, anxiety, anger, depression, etc.
CBT for Depression

CBT has been found to be an effective treatment for depression in children and adults. It focuses on current issues and symptoms rather than a person's past history as other, more traditional forms of therapy do. Clients usually visit a therapist weekly and combine these visits with daily practice exercises (homework) designed to help them apply CBT skills in their daily life.

The goals of CBT in depressed clients include:

  1. Cogntive Restructuring. This process focuses on identifying and correcting inaccurate or irrational thoughts associated with depressed feelings. People who are depressed often have distorted thoughts about themselves, others, and about events and situtations (i.e., "I am dumb", "My life sucks", "This is terrible", "Nothing ever works out for me", "This is awful." It is important to challenge these distorted thoughts and replace them with healthy, more realistic thinking.

  2. Behavioral Activation. This process helps clients to engage in more enjoyable activites to promote feelngs of well-being. When a person is depressed, problems in daily living seem insurmountable. The depressed person often tries to get better control of their life by withdrawing from others. Activities that were previously enjoyable lose their appeal. CBT helps clients re-engage in life's activities and encourages them to seek out the people and situations that they previously found pleasurable.
  3. Problem Solving. Clients are encouraged to use rational thinking to solve problems rather than unhealthy thought processes. Depressed people often have trouble with cognitive skills. Depression affects their attention span, frustration tolerance, and self-confidence to find viable solutions to problems. With CBT, clients are taught to break problems into smaller bits, look at alternative solutions through brainstorming, predict possible outcomes, and to put plans into action. The problem solving program often involves five steps: (1) Ask yourself, what is the problem? (2) Think of some plans to solve the problem (3) Pick the best plan (4) Try the plan out (5) Evaluate the plan by asking yourself, did it work.

Suggested Reading
Beck, Aaron. Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders. This is a basic introduction to cognitive therapy by its most famous founder. This book is among the most cited on the subject.

Beck, Judith. Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond. This book was written as a training manual for therapists but it is an excellent introduction to CBT for non-therapists as well.

Burns, David. The Feeling Good Handbook.This is an excellent guide to help the reader change thinking, control mood swings, deal with troublesome situations, and feel better about yourself.

Luciani, Joseph. Self-Coaching: How to Heal Anxiety and Depression. A terrific book for those who want to work on improving their thoughts and feelings by using a CBT approach. Contains practical worksheets and exercises.
Parker, Harvey. Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Depression. 2004. This form may be copied for personal use by active members of myADHD.com. For further information refer to: www.myADHD.com.

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