Comprehensive list of cognitive techniques in CBT

Question

I'm not a cognitive science student, but I'm interested in CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) and I'm using it to overcome some of the problems I have.

However, I have difficulty in finding resources online for it. AMAIK CBT has a list of cognitive errors, which I prefer to call dysfunctional mental sceneries. You can simply Google for common cognitive errors and you end up with like 20 good results.

To overcome those errors, people are encouraged to use some techniques like reality testing for example. But I can't find a good comprehensive list of techniques used in CBT. Here are the links to sites I've found:

http://cognitivetechniques.com/what-is-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-cbt/ http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/treatment/cognitive-techniques http://brownbackmason.com/articles/5-common-techniques-of-the-cognitive-behavioral-therapist

However they barely provide more than 5 techniques. In comparison to the lists of cognitive errors, it seems that there are not enough cognitive techniques proposed by cognitive psychologists. I've heard somewhere that we have more than 100 cognitive techniques, and I can't find more than 5 on the Internet.

Is it that I've misunderstood techniques part of CBT? Or is it that techniques are not free to be published online? Can anyone clarify me here, or show me a comprehensive list of cognitive techniques?

Answer 1

The issue is that there are many variations of cognitive behavioral therapy, and each variation has its own techniques (as well as some that overlap with other therapies). A lot of the time, when people are speaking about cognitive behavioral therapy, they are considering cognitive behavioral therapy as conceived by Aaron Beck. However, there have been many different "variations" of cognitive behavioral therapy, which some envision as having come in three waves. I wrote an article that I considered to be a good list of cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. However, I am now planning extensive revisions and possibly a couple of additional articles to clarify the following:

1. There are many variations of CBT (and I shall write an article explaining that and listing them)
2. In total, there are over 70 techniques of CBT when you consider all the different versions of it. I shall write an article listing them.
3. I will either rewrite or revise my current article to reflect that it mainly accounts for CBT as conceived by Aaron Beck.

Answer 2

You might want to check out http://www.anxietyonline.org.au/. It's free for the eTherapy version and it's funded by the Australian federal government.

A colleague of mine gave a presentation and it looks really good. From the website:

Anxiety Online is a comprehensive online mental health service offering information, assessment, online diagnosis and treatment programs ("eTherapy") for the anxiety disorders:-

Once you have gone through the fairly long diagnostic process, you get access to a range of eTherapy resources. In particular, you can use it to learn more about CBT. It has exercises and videos.

Answer 3

Wikipedia has a long list.

1. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a "third wave" behavior therapy, developed by Stephen Hayes based on relational frame theory.
   2. Anxiety Management Training was developed by Suinn and Richardson (1971) for helping clients control their anxiety by the use of relaxation and other skills.1
   3. Applied Behavioral Analysis, described by Baer, Wolf and Risley in 1968,2 is the science of applying experimentally derived principles of behavior to improve socially significant behavior.
   4. Behavioral activation is a behavioral approach to treating depression, developed by Neil Jacobson and others.
   5. Behavior modification is a term originally used by Edward Thorndike in 1911.
   6. Behavior therapy
   7. Cognitive therapy was developed by Aaron Beck[3][4] and has become of the most studied psychosocial treatments.
   8. Cognitive analytic therapy
   9. Cognitive behavior modification
   10. Cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy
   11. Cognitive Emotional Behaviour Therapy
   12. Cognitive processing therapy for Post traumatic stress disorder
   13. Computerised Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
   14. Contingency Management
   15. Dialectical Behavior Therapy
   16. Demartini Method
   17. Direct therapeutic exposure
   18. Exposure and response prevention
   19. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy
   20. Interactive Cognitive Subsystems
   21. Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy
   22. Multimodal Therapy
   23. Problem-Solving Therapy1
   24. Prolonged Exposure Therapy
   25. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, formerly called Rational Therapy and Rational Emotive Therapy,[5] was founded byAlbert Ellis and is "regarded by many as one of the premiere examples of the cognitive-behavioral approach"1
   26. Reality Therapy
   27. Relapse Prevention
   28. Self Control Training.
   29. Self Instructional Training was developed by Donald Meichenbaum, influenced by the developmental psychology ofAlexander Luria and Lev Vygotsky, designed to treat the mediational deficiencies of impulsive children1
   30. Self-talk Identification, Questioning & Revision (SIQR)
   31. Stress Inoculation Training1
   32. Systematic desensitization is an anxiety reduction technique, developed by Joseph Wolpe.
   33. Systematic Rational Restructuring was an attempt by Marvin Goldfried to reanalyze systematic desensitization in terms of cognitive mediation and coping skills.1

This book also seems like a good resource for learning more about techniques.