Friday, November 13 | 9:45 AM – 10:45 AM

ABCT Lifetime Achievement Award Talk:

Common Factors And Shared Strategies: Making Sense of the Proliferation of Cognitive Behavior Therapies

Participants earn 1 continuing education credit

Categories: Treatment – Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Treatment – Change Process / MechanismsSymptoms / Disorders – Transdiagnostic

Keywords: Treatment – Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Treatment – Change Process / Mechanisms,  Symptoms / Disorders – Transdiagnostic

All levels of familiarity with the material

Ray DiGiuseppe is a native of Philadelphia, PA, and did his undergraduate work in psychology at Villanova University. He received his Ph.D. from Hofstra University in 1975. He was elected a fellow of APA divisions 12 (Clinical Psychology), 16 (School Psychology), 29 (Psychotherapy), and 43 (Family Psychology). He has published extensively on anger, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. His works include Understanding Anger Disorders and the Anger Disorders Scale, the Anger Regulation and Expression Scale, and The Practitioner’s Guide to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. He is a Professor of Psychology at St. John’s University and Director of the PhD program in Clinical Psychology. He also serves as Director of Education at the Albert Ellis Institute. He has served as president of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy (Division 29 of the American Psychological Association). He has lectured extensively around the world on Anger as a Clinical Problem and REBT.

While CBT has become the Gold Standard of Psychotherapy, its popularity has led to a proliferation of different models and theories. Each model was developed to treat a specific disorder, yet quickly evolved into a transdiagnostic system. Each promotes different hypothetical constructs that are thought to mediate psychopathology and lead to change. This situation has left many clinicians confused about the differences and similarities among CBT systems and how to select the best mode of use for a specific client. This presentation proposes that all CBT models utilize the common factors of successful psychotherapy and Rogerian acceptance. The presentation identifies the similarities between cognitive and behavioral interventions in CBT and the unique aspects of each approach.

CBT has been called the gold standard in psychotherapy. The present research has found that all forms of CBT have sufficient evidence to be considered effective. The research literature fails to support the idea that any one system is more effective than the others. Thus, we have a Dodo bird effect within CBT. CBT helps around 60% of clients, and this level of effectiveness has not improved in more than 30 years. Despite this limited improvement, there has been a proliferation of CBT models. Clinicians face the challenge of understanding the differences between these models and deciding whether to remain faithful to one CBT model or to integrate models based on a specific client’s needs. Clinicians would instead learn to assess which CBT constructs are mediating a specific client’s disturbance. I will identify the interventions common to all CBT models and argue that their differences are best understood through the cognitions they plan to change, not the strategies they use.

CBT books usually do not focus on the common factors of psychotherapy. However, these are embedded in all forms of CBT. These common factors include identifying an acceptable explanation for the client’s problems and explaining how the intervention logically follows from that explanation. I will identify how CBT approaches are superior to other therapies for this task. I will also discuss how this serves to develop the therapeutic alliance, specifically, agreement on the goals of therapy. CBT therapists are less successful at negotiating agreement on the tasks of therapy as they have already decided on the model to use because of their allegiance to a model.

One can resolve the problem of agreement on the task of therapy by recognizing that different CBT models, hypotheses, and cognitions mediate emotional and behavioral disturbance; the therapist can individualize therapy by assessing which cognitions are present in the individual client. Therapists can individualize their CBT treatment to the client while remaining faithful to the CBT scientific model.

• Implement the common factors of psychotherapy within each CBT model.
• Identify how the CBT models differ in the dysfunctional cognitions they identify as mediating disturbance.
• Identify and use the common CBT interventions used across the different CBT models.
• Assess dysfunctional cognitions mediating the problems in a specific client.

Recommended Readings:

DiGiuseppe, R., David, D., & Venezia, R. (2016). Cognitive Theories. In J.C. Norcross, G. R. VandenBos, & D.F. Freedheim (Eds.). The Handbook of Clinical Psychology Volume II of V: Theory and Research. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. The Associate Editor for this volume II is Bunmi O. Olatunji.

DiGiuseppe, R., Fisher, A., Raptis, J. Katherine Romero. Annettee Schieffelin, & William Chaplin. (2023). What Cognitions Best Predict Disturbed Anger in Adults? A Revision of the Anger Cognitions Scale. Cognitive Therapy and Research (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-023-10362-z

Matweychuk, W., DiGiuseppe, R, & Gulyayeva, O. (2019). A Comparison of REBT with Other Cognitive Behavior Therapies. In M. E. Bernard and W. Dryden (Eds.). REBT: Advances in Theory, Research and Practice. New York: Springer-Nature

Ruggiero, G.M., Caselli, G., & Sassaroli, S. (Eds.). Case Formulation as a Therapeutic Tool in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. New York: Springer Nature.