Cognitive Behavioral Therapy The Future Of Treating...

Beating the Blues and Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy: The Future of Treating Depression? Cognitive behavioral therapy is based off the theory that depression is caused by a pattern of negative thinking that may be triggered by upsetting situations (Comer, 2013). This pattern forms maladaptive attitudes, which cause individuals to constantly view themselves, their world, and their future in negative ways (Comer, 2013). Cognitive behavioral therapy is designed to help clients recognize and change their negative thoughts in an attempt to improve their mood (Comer, 2013). This approach also uses behavioral techniques to encourage patients to become more active and try out new behaviors (Comer, 2013). Cognitive behavioral therapy is†¦show more content†¦It is available on the Internet and requires an account to be made in order to gain access to the program. Beating the Blues consists of a 15 min introductory video and eight 50-minute sessions of interactive multimedia therapy to be done weekly (Barazzone, Cavanagh, Richards, 2012). Clients are encouraged to set goa ls for their time in therapy (Barazzone, Cavanagh, Richards, 2012). At each session, the program requires the patient to record his/her progress and provides individualized homework assignments to be completed between sessions (Barazzone, Cavanagh, Richards, 2012). Cognitive behavioral therapy is catered through case studies, exercises, quizzes, interactive games, character examples, and homework assignments (Barazzone, Cavanagh, Richards, 2012). Beating the Blues encourages patients to put into practice what they learn each session (Barazzone, Cavanagh, Richards, 2012). Weekly emails are sent to each client to offer positive feedback for work done so far, to provide homework reminders, to give an overview of what will be learned in the next session, and to encourage continuation of the program (Barazzone, Cavanagh, Richards, 2012). Beating the Blues has been shown to be effective in large randomized trials (Cavanagh et al., 2006). A study was done to examine if Beating the Blues could also be found effective in a naturalistic non-randomized trial. The study recruited