Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is an action-oriented, problem-solving therapy which has been found to be highly effective in treating anxiety and depressive disorders. This therapy is strategically devised to treat different problems in different individuals. CBT utilizes the "here and now" approach, emphasizing current life factors that maintain the problem, though past experiences that are directly relevant to the client's distress is welcomed into the discussion.

Cognitive-behavior therapists help clients to understand that although biological and environmental conditions can contribute to problems, the clients create, to a large degree, their own psychological disturbances and have the ability to significantly change these disturbances. Therapists play an integral part in correcting the disturbed evaluations, emotions, and behaviors of their clients by guiding them toward rational goals and purposes and assisting them in generating alternative courses of action.Cognitive therapy helps clients to understand that distorted patterns of cognition have problematic emotional and behavioral consequences. Teaching clients to self-monitor their thoughts and feelings on a day-to-day basis through the utilization of a daily diary helps them unravel core beliefs and their relation to ongoing feelings and behaviors. In cognitive treatment, clients learn to detect and dispute their irrational beliefs by discriminating them from their rational alternatives. Over time, this enhanced awareness will lead them to actively challenge their dysfunctional thoughts by employing cognitive, emotive, and behavioral methods of change.

Behavior therapy assists clients in detecting behavioral patterns that are functionally related to the presenting complaint. A behavioral treatment plan is carefully tailored to meet each individual's needs and is dependent on the specific problem at hand. Often, techniques such as relaxation training and systematic desensitization are utilized to help clients gradually increase their comfort level in the presence of phobias or feared situations. In addition, modeling, behavior rehearsal, and planned exposures are some of the many tools that assist individuals in managing their anxieties more effectively.

The CBT therapist encourages the individual to be self-reliant and incorporates relapse prevention into treatment in order to maintain progress after discharge. The combination of a comprehensive CBT treatment, an empathic and supportive therapist, and motivated client is optimal in achieving notable improvements.