Aaron Beck & Cognitive Therapies

Cognitive therapies are therapies that relate to how a person thinks, and attempt to solve problems based on changing how people think. The founder of cognitive therapies was Aaron Beck.

Beck believed that problems resulted from cognitive distortions, that is, were based in a person's thinking. Beck believed that a person's thought, beliefs, attitudes and perceptions were the basis for what emotions they would experience and how intense those emotions would be and that by changing the thinking a person could change their experience.

Beck explains this concept saying "cognitive therapy is based on the premise that emotions come out of unexamined, habituated thought reactions. These thoughts and the emotions they foster can be deconstructed and, hence, defused of their power to poison all human interactions" (Beck, A.T. (1989). Love Is Never Enough. New York: Harper Collins).

Beck's therapies are made accessible to medical practitioners...
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