Aaron Beck’s New Therapy Modality, Creator of CBT

Aaron Beck, one of the most important researchers in psychology, creator of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is now 99 years old and still active. More recently, he and his team have been developing a new treatment modality for hospitalized schizophrenic patients. This new strand is called Recovery-oriented cognitive therapy.

In this text, I will present this new modality, through the 3rd edition of the famous book by Judith Beck, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Basics and Beyond – perhaps the most used introductory book within CBT! This edition is from now, from 2021.

Recovery-oriented cognitive therapy (CT-R)

“Recovery guidance focuses on identifying clients’ values ​​and aspirations (and the meaning of their aspirations) and helping them create a sense of purpose and empowerment in their lives by taking steps each week towards their goals. We also focus on helping clients come to positive conclusions about themselves, other people and their future as a result of taking those positive actions, and we identify and reinforce their positive qualities, skills and resources. was published).

These characteristics bear a lot of similarity with ACT, with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. You can learn more about love in our free ACT course.

In the book, Judith Beck presents two clinical cases, Abe and Maria, and shows how she conducted the sessions using classical cognitive conceptualization and recovery-oriented Cognitive Therapy.

For example, Abe, a 55-year-old man separated with children, was struggling with depression related to difficulties at work and separation. After the initial assessment session, Beck clarified Abe’s values ​​(which is important), aspirations (how he wanted his life to be) and in the 18 sessions carried out over an 8-month period the treatment focused on the present moment, as it was the last few days, but equally the focus was on next week’s goals and behaviors that would allow Abe to realize his aspirations, in line with his values.

In Beck’s words:

“Most of the subsequent sessions focused on helping Abe identify his goals for the session, decide what steps he would like to take in the coming week, come up with solutions to potential obstacles, reduce negative mood, and increase positive mood. We often work on problem solving and skill development, especially related to changing your depressive thinking and behavior. I not only used interventions with him but also taught him how to use these skills himself to build resilience and prevent relapse.”

Another characteristic of recovery-oriented Cognitive Therapy is the emphasis on the client’s adaptive beliefs, that is, work with questioning dysfunctional beliefs – which cause suffering and impair functioning in life or specific areas – continues to be done, as in traditional CBT , but there is also the reinforcement of beliefs that the client already has and the positive strategies already known and used before that maintain the positive mood.

“Rather than emphasizing symptoms and psychopathology, recovery-oriented Cognitive Therapy emphasizes the client’s strengths, personal qualities, skills, and resources.”

Differences in time

And yet another important difference that has been briefly mentioned before between classical CBT and recovery-oriented Cognitive Therapy is time:

“In traditional CBT we tend to talk about problems that came up in the last week and use techniques to solve those issues. In recovery-oriented Cognitive Therapy we focus more on the client’s aspirations for the future, their values, and steps they can take each week towards their goals.”

Video by Judith Beck about the 3rd edition of the book

Conclusion

Recovery-oriented Cognitive Therapy is a recent development within CBT. In the postgraduate course in CBT that I am studying at PUCRS, I discovered that there are more than 200 types of Cognitive Behavioral Therapies. The reason for so many modalities is that scientific research on the effectiveness of treatments, the protocols used, have so far been designed for specific disorders.

Thus, to treat depression, the psychotherapist uses a protocol and to treat, for example, borderline, another specific protocol was developed. As treatments have been developed for virtually all disorders, 200 types is not as high a number as one might assume.

Patients who are leaving hospital, who often stayed in hospital for long periods, need support that helps them achieve short-term goals, but that are related to long-term values ​​and aspirations. This focus, which is more forward-looking than past weeks, can also be extremely useful for other clients, who can benefit both from classic cognitive conceptualization modalities and proven techniques and from a more forward-looking focus. steps.

To schedule an online session with me, Dr. Felipe de Souza, you can contact us by WhatsApp or Telegram – 11984156913 or by email – Psicologiamsn@gmail.com

References

Therapist resources and some Abe sessions

Beck, Judith. Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Basics and Beyond. 3rd edition. New York, Guilford Press

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