The Cognitive-Behavioural Approach with Depressed Clients

Correspondence to Dr Michael Seott, Liverpool Personal Service Society, 34, Stanley Street, Liverpool L1 6AN Summary The recent cognitive revolution in psychology has meant thatan individual's behaviour is now rarely viewed in simple behaviouristterms as solely a product of rewards and punishments, but isseen as influenced by the individual's own, often idiosyncratic,view of their situation. This new paradigm has enabled the developmentof highly structured and usually brief interventions in manyareas of individual emotional problems. This paper describes Individual and Group Cognitive Therapywith depressed clients and cites two recent outcome studies.The contribution of Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to thisarea of emotional distress is noted with the caveat that itseffectiveness has been more thoroughly studied in this areathan in others.