The Origins of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies

Mental Health – The Third Wave

In this course, Dr Helen Bolderston (Bournemouth University) explores the three waves of cognitive and behavioural psychotherapy. In the first lecture, we think about the origins of cognitive therapy and behaviourist theory. In the second lecture, we think about the first wave of cognitive and behavioural psychotherapy, which focused on behaviourist views of learning and unlearning associations. In the third lecture, we think about the second wave of psychotherapies, which centred around cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Next, we think about the third wave of psychotherapies which aims to improve upon CBT by including mindfulness and acceptance. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about the real-world implications of the current state of third wave therapies.

The Origins of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies

In this lecture, we think about the origins of cognitive therapy, focusing in particular on: (i) Aaron Beck as the founder of cognitive therapy; (ii) Steve Hayes’ proposal that cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies could be conceptualised as three distinct and consecutive waves; (iii) the three waves of psychotherapy as the behavioural interventions developed in the 1950s and 1960s, the focus on cognition and thinking through the development of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and the current wave of therapies which incorporate mindfulness and acceptance to address its limitations.