Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the Crossroads

Simon E Blackwell; Thomas Heidenreich

doi:10.1007/s41811-021-00104-y

Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the Crossroads

Int J Cogn Ther. 2021;14(1):1-22. doi: 10.1007/s41811-021-00104-y. Epub 2021 Feb 8.

Authors

Simon E Blackwell¹, Thomas Heidenreich²

Affiliations

¹ Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Massenbergstraße 9-13, 44787 Bochum, Germany.
² Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Esslingen, Germany.

Abstract

The early development of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) can be characterized by the coming together of behavioral and cognitive traditions. However, the past decades have arguably seen more divergences than convergences within the field. The 9^th World Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies was held in Berlin in July 2019 with the congress theme "CBT at the Crossroads." This title reflected in part the coming together of people from all over the world, but also the fact that recent developments raise important questions about the future of CBT, including whether we can in fact treat it as a unified field. In this paper, we briefly trace the history of CBT, then introduce a special issue featuring a series of articles exploring different aspects of the past, present, and future of CBT. Finally, we reflect on the possible routes ahead.

Keywords: CBT history; Cognitive behavior therapy; Psychological therapy; Third wave.

Publication types

Review