The third wave of cognitive behavioral therapy and the rise of process‐based care

The term cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) identifies a family of interventions that are widely recognized as the set of psychological treatments with the most extensive empirical support1. CBT is not monolithic, however, and it has been through several distinct eras, generations, or waves. The first generation of this tradition was behavior therapy: the application of learning principles to well-evaluated methods designed to change overt behavior. By the late 1970s, behavior therapy had moved into the era of classic CBT: a new generation of methods and concepts focused on the role of maladaptive thinking patterns in emotion and behavior, and the use of methods to detect and change those patterns. The arrival…