ASWB Clinical Exam 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) primarily focuses on changing negative thought patterns to improve emotional regulation and develop personal coping strategies. This approach is based on the understanding that cognitive processes significantly influence our feelings and behaviors. When a person is able to identify and modify their maladaptive thoughts, they can alter their emotional and behavioral responses to various situations.

For example, if someone has a distorted view of a situation that leads to feelings of anxiety, CBT helps them to challenge that thought and replace it with a more balanced and realistic perspective. By achieving this cognitive restructuring, clients may experience decreased symptoms of anxiety or depression and, consequently, more positive behavior patterns.

While reinforcing positive behaviors and coping with emotional distress are essential elements of therapy, they are often secondary outcomes that result from addressing and changing core negative thought processes. Identifying unconscious motivations leans more into psychodynamic theories, which differ from the structured, present-focused strategies employed in CBT.