The building blocks of treatment in cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a set of treatments that focus on altering thoughts, sensations, emotions and behaviors by addressing identified maintenance mechanisms such as distorted thinking or avoidance. The current article describes the history of CBT and provides a description of many of the basic techniques used in CBT. These include: psychoeducation, self-monitoring, cognitive restructuring, in vivo exposure, imaginal exposure, and homework assignments.