This is the golden age of cognitive therapy. Its popularity among society and the professional community is growing by leaps and bounds. What is it and what are its limits? What is the fundamental nature of cognitive therapy? It is, to my way of thinking, simple but profound. To understand it, it is useful to think back to the history of behavior therapy, to the basic development made by Joseph Wolpe. In the 1950s, Wolpe astounded the therapeutic world and infuriated his colleagues by finding a simple cure for phobias. The psychoanalytic establishment held that phobias-irrational and intense fear of certain objects, such as cats-were just surface manifesta tions of deeper, underlying disorders. The psychoanalysts said their source was the buried fear in male children of castration by the father in retaliation for the son's lust for his mother. For females, this fear is directed toward the opposite sex parent. The biomedical theorists, on the other hand, claimed that some as yet undiscovered disorder in brain chemistry must be the underlying problem. Both groups insisted that to treat only the patient's fear of cats would do no more good than it would to put rouge over measles. Wolpe, however, reasoned that irrational fear of something isn't just a symptom of a phobia; it is the whole phobia.

A Casebook of Cognitive Therapy for Traumatic Stress Reactions aims to help therapists who may lack specific training or who may not have an extensive range of clinical experience.

This volume contains examples of how cognitive therapists working in varied settings with groups of adult clients have applied the cognitive model in their domain. Cognitive therapy has much broader application than the traditional area of depression; contributors illustrate the way they work by using extended case material, readers will hear the voices of the clients and empathise with both client and therapist as they seek to build a collaborative relationship. Areas discussed range from drug abuse and eating disorders to obsessive behaviour. Any therapist, however experienced, will learn from `listening in' on the cases presented and students will find it essential reading.

This book is a unique volume in which leading clinicians and researchers in the field of cognitive therapy for psychosis illustrate their individual approaches to the understanding of the difficulties faced by people with psychosis and how this informs intervention. Chapters include therapies focused on schizophrenia and individual psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions (including paranoia). Beck's original case study of cognitive therapy for psychosis from 1952 is reprinted, accompanied by his 50-year retrospective analysis. Also outlined are treatments for: • bipolar disorder • dual diagnosis • schema-focused approaches • early intervention to prevent psychosis • adherence to medication This book will be useful to clinicians and researchers alike, and will be an invaluable resource to mental health practitioners working with individuals experiencing psychosis.

Cognitive therapy is the established method of helping people to overcome states of depression, anxiety or other emotional conditions. Not only do the authors explain the theory behind the treatment but this was the first collection of case studies to be published outside of the United States. With an introduction to the development and application of cognitive therapy, the book goes on to outline how it can work for a therapist or counsellor. Covering cases from depression and panic disorder to bulimia and obsessive-compulsive disorder, giving details of the process of the therapy in each case. This is an invaluable practical guide to how cognitive therapy works for clinical psychologists, students, social workers, nurses and psychiatrists.

The second edition of this acclaimed text gives students of cognitive and cognitive-behavioral therapy a solid grounding in principles, while modeling an integrative approach to the problems they will encounter most.

This Handbook covers all the many aspects of cognitive therapy both in its practical application in a clinical setting and in its theoretical aspects. Since the first applications of cognitive therapy over twenty years ago, the field has expanded enormously. This book provides a welcome and readable overview of these advances.