Role of emotion in cognitive-behavior therapy.

Abstract

In this article, we suggest that the long-term effectiveness of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) may be enhanced by going beyond symptoms at the cognitive level (i.e., intellectual meanings) and expanding therapeutic focus to the underlying, implicit emotional meanings. Following a discussion of the state-of-the-art view on emotion in CBT, we present empirical, theoretical, and clinical evidence from cognitive science, experimental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience pointing to the distinction between cognitive and emotional domains of information processing. We discuss the role of affective processes in reorganizing emotional meanings and consider how CBT therapists can use in-session emotional processing to facilitate clinical change.