Behavioral and Cognitive-Behavioral therapy

Behavioral and Cognitive-Behavioral therapies: Key players are B.F Skinner, Joseph Wolpe, Albert Bandura, John Krumboltz, Donald Meichenbaum and Aaron Beck. Goals include helping the client make good adjustments, modify mal-adaptive behavior, learn productive responses, set and achieve concrete goals, and change behavior and/or thoughts. This theory asserts that all human behaviors are learned, and that old behaviors can be extinguished. In this theory, the counselor is viewed as teacher, director and expert. The counselor is active in assisting the client in clarifying goals and modifying behavior and thoughts. There are a wide range of techniques that can be used in sessions depending on what the client is trying to achieve. For example if behavior changes are the goal, both positive and negative reinforcement is used. There is a focus on extinction of undesirable behaviors using self-monitoring and environmental planning. For fear based behavior such as phobias, one might use systematic desensitization, flooding, stress inoculation, and thought stopping techniques. Strengths of this theory include a focus on symptoms, focus is on the here and now, an abundance of available procedures, is based on learning theory, it has a well documented success rate, and it  can be used in combination with other theories. Limitations of Behavioral and Cognitive-behavioral therapy include the fact that it does not include the total person (just behaviors), it ignores past history and the unconscious, and does not consider developmental stages.

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