Running Head: Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive Therapy
Travis Roberts
University of Southern Mississippi

PSY 312
Lore m. Dickey
December 3, 2012

Sometimes we all make mistakes while we are doing something. Some people may feel really bad after they make mistakes, and after that they seem to have a negative look at things. People who act like this may be sent to a therapist who will take the cognitive therapy approach. Cognitive therapy should give these kinds of people with negative thoughts other ways in which they will handle the situations they are in. In this paper I will give the reader a understanding of what cognitive therapy is and I will also tell how cognitive therapy would play a role in my career. Cognitive therapy seems to be a good approach on how to help clients and I hope to get you to understand it. Cognitive therapy was developed by a psychiatrist by the name of Aaron T. Beck. Cognitive therapy was first expounded by Beck in the 1960’s. Cognitive therapy is an approach made to help the client overcome difficulties by identifying and changing the way they think, behave, and how they respond to certain situations. Cognitive therapy would be a good approach to take with someone who is depressed. It would help someone who is depressed because the therapist would try to get the client to not focus on the things that are making them depressed all the time. The therapist might try and get the client to focus on something that makes them happy. For example, let’s say that the client likes to play video games and reading books, the therapist might get the client to go out and purchase a new video game and some books. This will help the client to take their mind off of whatever negative thing that has them to be depressed. They will be so focused on playing the video game and reading books that they might eventually forget their problem and could possibly return back to a normal thinking state. I personally think that this would be a good approach because the client and the therapist are both working together to help make the client fix their problem. It also gives the client some time to work on how they think and about what other choices that they can make besides thinking negative all the time. I would take the approach of therapy if I were a therapist because I feel as though it would be helpful to my clients and me. This would help