Judith S. Beck, PhD Addresses ACA Conference Attendees

Cognitive therapy expert Judith S. Beck, PhD, addressed thousands of counseling professionals attending the ACA 2011 Conference & Exposition in New Orleans today.  Beck, the daughter of the world-renowned father of cognitive therapy, 89-year old Aaron Beck, is a clinical associate professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and is President of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research.

During her presentation, she reviewed the basic concepts of cognitive therapy and how it can be applied to personality disorders and weight loss.  The outcomes for those treated with cognitive therapy are positive, she noted.  In fact, according to research she cited, people who have depression and are treated with cognitive therapy have half the relapse rate of those treated only with medication.

In this form of treatment, we “teach them how to become their own therapist,” she said. “It is an educative kind of psychotherapy.”