Throughout this blog I will refer to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It’s the gold standard in mental health therapy and should be more widely available, certainly more so than the medication so easily given out for mental health disorders.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) emerged in the mid-20th century as a practical, evidence-based approach to mental health. Its roots lie in two earlier schools of thought: behaviourism and cognitive psychology.
In the 1950s and 60s, psychologist Aaron T. Beck noticed that many of his depressed patients held persistent, negative thoughts about themselves, their future, and the world. These weren’t just symptoms—they were patterns that shaped their mood and behaviour. Beck developed Cognitive Therapy to help people identify and challenge these thought distortions. Around the same time, Albert Ellis created Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which focused on confronting irrational beliefs head-on.
By the 1980s, these ideas began to merge with behavioural techniques—like exposure therapy and reinforcement strategies—into what we now know as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. CBT gained popularity for its structured, short-term format and strong research backing, becoming the gold standard treatment for conditions like depression, anxiety, PTSD, and more.
Today, CBT continues to evolve, with new, and unnecessary in my opinion, forms like Mindfulness-Based CBT and Trauma-Focused CBT building on its core principles.
CBT – Empowering people to take control of their thoughts, emotions, and actions.
inner agora 