Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is widely recognized as the most effective, research-backed form of psychotherapy available today. While there are over 150 types of therapy, CBT consistently leads the field in clinical outcomes, offering faster results than many other approaches and proven effectiveness for nearly every mental health concern. Unlike other types of therapy that may focus primarily on insight or exploring the past, CBT is goal-oriented, practical, skill-based, and focused on the present. It helps people identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that contribute to emotional distress.
At its core, CBT gives you tools to take control of your thoughts, manage your emotions, and make meaningful, lasting changes in your life. And unlike many other treatments, the progress you make in CBT often continues well after therapy ends because you’ve learned how to help yourself.
CBT is based on a simple but powerful idea: our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are interconnected. When one of them shifts, it can influence the others. That means by changing something we can control — like our thoughts or actions — we can actually start to feel better.
A big part of CBT is learning to notice and challenge negative or overly critical thoughts. For example, imagine you see someone you know on the street and wave, but they don’t wave back. You might immediately think, “They must not like me. I probably did something wrong.” Understandably, that thought could lead to feelings of rejection or sadness.
But here’s where CBT steps in: Just because we think something doesn’t mean it’s true. Maybe the person didn’t see you. Maybe they were distracted or having a bad day. When we slow down and look at things from a different angle, we often realize there’s more than one possible explanation.
CBT helps you practice this kind of thinking — shifting away from assumptions and toward more realistic, balanced thoughts. When you do, the intensity of negative emotions often decreases.
One of the most powerful parts of CBT is its focus on actually changing behavior because meaningful change doesn’t just happen through insight, it happens through action. For instance, if you always avoid social situations when you’re feeling anxious, it might seem like you’re protecting yourself — but over time, that avoidance can make anxiety worse.
CBT helps you take gradual, intentional steps that challenge those patterns, proving to yourself that you can handle discomfort, and ultimately that you can build towards lasting change.
CBT is collaborative, practical, and goal-focused. You don’t just talk about problems — you learn real skills to handle them. In therapy, you’ll build strategies for solving problems, managing emotions, and improving how you respond to tough situations. You’ll also work with your therapist to explore any patterns in your relationships that might be holding you back. For fears and anxieties, CBT can include exposure therapy — a gradual process of facing fears in manageable steps to build confidence and reduce distress.
The ultimate goal? To make you your own therapist. CBT is designed to help you create deep, lasting change so that you can manage challenges in your life long after therapy ends. It's not just about reducing symptoms — it’s about helping you live a full, meaningful life where you can do and enjoy the things that matter most to you.
Our clinicians are experts in CBT and work closely with you to personalize treatment from the very beginning. Together, we’ll identify and address the specific thought patterns and behaviors causing you distress — including deep-seated beliefs about yourself, others, and the world around you.
We’ll also focus on building real-life skills: developing healthy coping strategies, improving emotional regulation, and strengthening your problem-solving abilities. If certain interpersonal styles are making it harder to reach your goals, we’ll explore those too.
For anxiety and other strong emotions, CBT may include exposure therapy — a step-by-step approach to helping you gradually face your fears and regain confidence.
Throughout the process, you’ll learn the theory behind each CBT technique and how it’s backed by science. This isn’t just about getting through tough moments — it’s about learning how to become your own therapist. That way, you’ll be equipped to handle psychological, social, and life challenges long after therapy ends.
You can also expect:
CBT is an active process. We don’t just talk — we take action. Together, we get unstuck.
CBT isn’t just about talking — it’s about learning practical tools that you can use in everyday life. During treatment, your therapist will guide you through different techniques that help you recognize unhelpful thoughts, change negative behaviors, and manage strong emotions. These skills are designed to help you feel more in control, both during therapy and long after it ends.
Cognitive restructuring is a key part of CBT. It helps you examine negative thoughts and replace them with more realistic, helpful ones. Using a method called guided discovery, your therapist will ask questions that challenge distressing thoughts and help you see the situation from a new angle.
Often, anxiety or depression involves thinking errors — like assuming the worst or being overly critical of yourself. These thoughts can feel true, even if they’re not.
In therapy, we don’t just look at surface thoughts — we dig deeper to uncover core beliefs, which are the underlying ideas driving emotional pain. These usually fall into three main areas: feeling unlovable, helpless, or worthless. By identifying and changing these core beliefs, we create long-term emotional change that lasts well beyond the therapy room.
In CBT, we identify unhelpful thought patterns and learn healthier ways to respond to them. When we’re dealing with negative or overly critical thoughts, it’s normal to try to cope — but some of the ways we do this can actually make things worse.
Common unhelpful thought processes include:
Instead of staying stuck in these patterns, CBT teaches you more helpful approaches — like being present-focused, taking proactive steps, and learning to tolerate and cope with uncomfortable thoughts in a healthier way.
In CBT, we often work with clients who are facing real-life problems they want to change. Together, we explore possible solutions, weigh the pros and cons, and consider both short- and long-term outcomes. This kind of collaborative problem-solving helps you take practical steps toward feeling better.
But not every situation can be fixed right away — or at all. When that happens, we shift the focus toward acceptance. This means learning to face difficult realities without getting stuck in excessive frustration or avoidance. Acceptance doesn’t mean giving up — it means finding ways to move forward even when things are hard.
In CBT, changing behavior is one of the most powerful ways to create lasting change in thoughts and emotions. When we act in healthier ways, we tend to feel better — and we start to believe more positive things about ourselves.
For example, if you avoid speaking in class because you feel insecure, that behavior reinforces the idea that you’re not confident. But if you start speaking up in small ways, your confidence often grows — and your beliefs follow.
Sometimes we change behavior by first working on thoughts (like in cognitive restructuring). Other times, we take action first and see how it affects our thoughts and feelings (this is called a behavioral experiment).
Many people get stuck in cycles where avoidance makes things worse — like procrastinating out of fear of failure, which leads to poor results and even more fear. CBT helps break these patterns and replace them with healthier, more helpful behaviors.
Behavioral experiments are a powerful CBT tool used to test beliefs through action. Instead of just talking about what might happen, we try out a new behavior and observe the results — like running a mini experiment in real life.
For example, if someone believes no one will care what they say in a meeting, we might encourage them to speak up and then reflect on what actually happened. Did people ignore them? Or were they more engaged than expected?
Often, people find their negative predictions were too extreme. By testing out different behaviors and seeing the outcome, they start to build more realistic, helpful beliefs. Over time, this builds confidence and breaks patterns of fear or avoidance.
It’s normal to want to avoid pain — especially painful emotions. But avoiding what makes us anxious or uncomfortable often makes those feelings stronger and harder to control. In fact, most people who feel stuck emotionally are caught in a cycle of avoidance.
Exposure therapy is a powerful CBT technique that helps you face your fears gradually and safely. Instead of avoiding the fear, you learn to approach it — again and again — until it feels less scary. This helps reduce distress, increase your ability to tolerate anxiety, and reshape your beliefs to be more realistic.
You’re always in control of the pace. Whether it’s riding an elevator, imagining a feared memory, or doing something embarrassing like singing in public — we’ll take it one step at a time, together.
An important part of exposure is removing “safety behaviors” like distractions that prevent you from fully facing the fear. This helps you realize it was your own strength that got you through — not the safety net.
If logic alone hasn’t helped, exposure therapy might be the breakthrough.
Avoidance can happen in small, everyday ways — even ones that seem harmless. These are called safety behaviors. They’re actions we take to prevent discomfort, but when we rely on them too much, they often keep anxiety going.
For example, someone afraid of making mistakes might over-Google, ask lots of people the same questions, constantly double-check their work, or avoid new challenges. Someone afraid of public speaking might overly rely on developing rituals, like rehearsing repeatedly, wearing a "lucky" outfit, or using specific calming routines. A person with germ fears might avoid touching doorknobs, clean their hands too frequently, or skip the top cup in a stack. And someone with a fear of elevators might only ride them with others.
These behaviors often stop people from fully facing their fears — and from discovering they’re capable of handling discomfort on their own. In CBT, we identify and gradually reduce these safety behaviors so you can build lasting confidence, and not just rely on temporary coping tricks.
When people feel depressed, they often stop doing things — even activities they used to enjoy. Everything can feel too hard, too exhausting, or just not worth the effort. But avoiding activity actually makes depression worse.
Behavioral activation is a technique that helps people slowly get back to doing meaningful and enjoyable things, even when they don’t feel motivated at first. Starting with small, manageable steps, we help build momentum until everyday life feels more doable again.
Over time, doing more leads to feeling better. Whether it’s getting out of bed, going for a short walk, texting a friend, or listening to music, taking action — even small action — can improve your mood and help break the cycle of depression.
For children, one of the most effective ways to change behavior is through a structured rewards system. In CBT, we focus on using rewards (with some appropriate consequences) to encourage positive behaviors and reduce negative ones.
We usually target 1–3 specific behaviors at a time. Your child earns privileges or rewards by completing the desired behaviors, and there are clear, consistent consequences for behaviors that are not acceptable.
As the child learns and improves, we gradually update the goals. For example, if the long-term goal is better participation in school, we might first reward them for turning in homework, then for studying, and eventually for speaking up in class.
This step-by-step approach helps kids stay motivated while building skills, confidence, and independence.
Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment without judgment. It’s about noticing what’s happening — your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, or surroundings — without trying to change or avoid it.
Many people get stuck thinking about the past or worrying about the future. When we focus too much on what went wrong or what might go wrong, anxiety and depression can grow. Mindfulness helps you stay grounded in the present.
Practicing mindfulness regularly can improve your mood, reduce stress, and help you feel calmer and more in control. It also supports your physical health, boosts your immune system, and builds psychological flexibility — the ability to handle life’s ups and downs without getting overwhelmed.
Whether it’s focused breathing, meditation, or simply paying attention during everyday tasks, mindfulness is a powerful tool for feeling better and thinking more clearly.
Good communication is more than just talking — it’s about being understood, expressing yourself clearly, and listening with care. But it can be especially hard when strong emotions are involved.
In CBT, we teach communication skills to help you become more assertive — the healthy middle ground between being too passive and too aggressive. Assertiveness means standing up for yourself while still being respectful and open to others.
We also work on active listening, empathy, and non-verbal communication — like body language and tone of voice. Learning how to pause, reflect, and respond (instead of react) helps you stay in control and build stronger relationships.
Whether it’s asking for help, setting boundaries, or managing conflict, better communication makes daily life easier and more connected.
You don’t need to be in crisis to benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is helpful for anyone who wants to better understand their thoughts, manage strong emotions, build healthy coping skills, or navigate life's challenges.
CBT might be a good fit if you recognize any of these behaviors:
Even if you don’t know exactly what’s wrong, CBT can help you figure things out. It’s a practical, goal-oriented approach that helps you take small steps toward feeling better and taking control of your mental health.
CBT is one of the most effective and widely researched forms of therapy available. It’s considered the gold standard for treating a vast range of mental health conditions including anxiety and depression to more complex challenges. If there’s a psychological concern, there’s almost always a CBT-based approach that can help. What makes CBT powerful is that it doesn’t just offer insight, it equips you with practical, proven tools to feel better and stay better.
Even if you don’t have a formal diagnosis, CBT can help you build resilience, increase self-awareness, and feel more in control of your daily life.
CBT is designed to be short-term, and results-focused, and it’s often significantly faster than other types of therapy. For many people, CBT lasts between 8 to 20 sessions, usually once a week. Some may feel better after just a few sessions, while others benefit from a longer course — it depends on your goals and what you're working through.
Each session typically lasts 45-60 minutes and your therapist will help you set clear goals early on. You’ll also be given tools to practice between sessions, which helps speed up progress and build lasting change.
The ultimate goal of CBT isn’t just to feel better in the moment — it’s to learn lifelong skills that help you handle challenges even after therapy ends.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) are both types of psychotherapy that help people manage emotions, thoughts, and behaviors — but they focus on slightly different things.
CBT teaches you how to recognize and challenge unhelpful thought patterns and make meaningful behavior changes that support long-term improvement. It’s not just about thinking differently, it’s about doing differently. This combination of cognitive and behavior strategies is what makes CBT so effective for treating a wide range of concerns including anxiety, depression, OCD, trauma, and other mental health challenges.
DBT is a form of therapy that was developed from CBT, and is used for treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and many other mental health conditions. DBT centers around developing these four key skills to manage strong emotions:
While CBT focuses more on changing thoughts and behaviors, DBT adds skills for accepting your emotions and staying grounded when things feel overwhelming.
Your therapist might recommend one or a mix of both depending on your needs. Both are highly effective and backed by research, it’s just about finding what works best for you.
It might take some time to find a CBT therapist who feels like the right fit for you. You might start by asking someone you trust, like a parent, doctor, school counselor, or coach, for a recommendation.
You can also search online directories like Psychology Today, GoodTherapy, or Zocdoc, where you can filter results by location, insurance, and specialty — just be sure to select "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)" as the focus. Another good option is to look for practices that specialize in evidence-based care, as these clinicians are often trained in up-to-date CBT techniques and provide personalized, compassionate support.
If you’re ready to move forward, our team at Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & Assessment Associates (CBTAA) can support you. Our expert clinicians specialize in CBT, the most effective, and research-backed approach for treating nearly every mental health challenge.
What sets CBTAA apart is the quality of our care. We’ve built our training model around the idea that great clinicians are always growing. Regardless of experience, every clinician on our team receives ongoing training and mentorship from nationally and internationally recognized leaders in CBT. These experts are not only at the forefront of the field’s primary accrediting body but are also bestselling authors, leaders in top professional organizations, international trainers, and well-established researchers.
At CBTAA, we take a collaborative, team-based approach to treatment, ensuring you benefit from the combined insight of multiple experts. And our therapists aren’t just highly trained, they are deeply committed to understanding your experience.
Whether you’re seeking support for yourself or a loved one, we offer personalized and evidence-based care for children, teens, and adults.
Book a free 15 minute consultation with our Clinical Coordinators so we can get you connected to a clinician that best aligns with your needs.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Assessment Associates
