Cognitive Therapy is where the therapist and the client work together to identify and solve problems. Therapists use the Cognitive Model to help clients overcome difficulties by changing their thinking, behaviour, and emotional responses. Cognitive therapy is effective in more than 1000 outcome studies for a myriad of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse, and it is currently being tested for personality disorders. It has also been demonstrated to be effective as an adjunctive treatment to medication for severe mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Cognitive therapy has been extended to and studied for adolescents, children, couples, and families. Its efficacy has also been established in treating certain medical disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, hypertension, fibromyalgia, post-myocardial infarction, depression, noncardiac chest pain, cancer, diabetes, migraine, and other chronic pain disorders.
