Holt Academy

Cognitive Behavioural Services

Development of Behaviour Therapy

Behaviour therapy is the clinical discipline which has evolved from many controlled trials of learning theory in the clinical environment, resulting in the welding of common sense principles of learning and behaviour into a framework for the treatment of a range of problems, both physical and psychological.

Current treatment for anxiety problems is largely based on the process of exposure to the feared stimulus developed from the work of Wolpe (1958). Thus the term exposure therapy was coined, the process of fear reduction being termed habituation. The practice of exposure has been refined by many over the years to the point where clients largely treat themselves with therapist in-put limited to information gathering and guidance during treatment. Other problems are viewed in terms of behaviour and how behaviours may have become adapted as a consequence of reinforcement schedules to the point where the individuals’ behaviour is maintaining the problem. The aim of behaviour therapy is to identify and modify unhelpful behaviours.

Development of Cognitive Therapy

In the 1960’s, Aaron T. Beck developed psychodynamic ideas into a structured, short-term approach based in the present (rather than the past) aimed at the treatment of depression. It assumed that as a consequence of negative or unhelpful experiences people will develop distorted or unhelpful thinking styles that negatively influence the patients mood and behaviour. The objective of cognitive therapy is to highlight unhelpful thinking styles and train the client in strategies to counter these.

Development of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Despite fundamental differences between the conceptual models upon which the two models are based, there are sufficient similarities in terms of principles and practice together with the problems which respond to both approaches for them to become combined into a coherent, flexible therapeutic approach. Indeed the differences between the two approaches has resulted in an approach which is constantly moderating and validating itself and its interventions.