前言

Foreword It is fair to say that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has undergone a tremendous evolution over the past twenty-five years. Some of these changes, such as moving from a five-column to a seven-column thought record, have been triggered by internal innovations and have helped extend CBT’s relevance to disorders falling outside the orbit of its initial validation for depression and anxiety. Other modifica- tions, such as focusing on strengths and balancing acceptance and change, have come in response to external challenges from other therapy models. With all this movement in the field it can be difficult for therapists to return to the basic elements of this approach in a way that is shorn of trends and niche applications. On this point, in fact, I am frequently approached by trainees who are interested in learn- ing about mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. When I ask them about their CBT background, they say it is minimal and they don’t see much need for it. The impression I have is that they are eager to leapfrog past the CBT essentials in order to get to the work they find more interesting. They tend to be surprised at my response, which often runs counter to their wishes and stresses that one can’t get very far in learning new CBT variants when the basic model is only weakly understood. CBT Made Simple does an enviable job in providing just this type of clinically pragmatic and skill- based grounding in CBT theory and interventions. Stemming from Nina Josefowitz and David Myran’s two-decade-long careers as cognitive therapists, teachers, supervisors, and academics, this book exem- plifies the best qualities of user-friendly, explicit guidance that offers valuable insights into the nuts and bolts of CBT to all levels of learners. For example, the decision to write this book with a structure that coheres to an actual therapy session is highly innovative. Agendas are set, homework is assigned and reviewed, and learning covers specific skill sets that are relevant to the material being covered. Here we see CBT at its finest. Rather than imparting this information in a purely theoretical manner, CBT Made Simple invites the reader to learn through doing. Nina and David rightly argue that it is only through the experiential immersion in CBT principles and interventions that the reader will optimize their book’s value. How much more can be learned from giving yourself a homework assignment and monitoring its performance or even nonperformance? Or scheduling your activities in a typical day and noticing whether life permits them to be achieved in their predetermined order? This approach, to my mind, is what separates CBT Made Simple from many other books touching on the same theme. It also shows how one of the metaconcepts in CBT, guided discovery, can be brought to bear on all aspects of therapeutic learning, whether inside or outside the actual therapy session. Readers who agree to take the plunge and work with the book in this manner will not be disappointed. CBT Made Simple is divided into parts that follow the different phases of CBT work and emphasize important formulation principles along with ongoing assessment in order to ensure that the most appropriate techniques are being employed. The early chapters focus on identifying client strengths and problem complaints as well as setting therapy goals. The reader then moves on to unpacking and helping clients regulate emotionally evocative situations through seeing the interplay of thoughts, feel- ings, physical sensations, and behavior. Problem solving and action plans follow, along with the specific application of exposure and activation exercises. The writing is very accessible and the numerous graphics and interactive forms used ensure that the reader is engaged, present, and invited to use these empirically supported interventions to enhance emotional and cognitive well-being. This may be a tall order for any book to fill, but CBT Made Simple has filled it in an exemplary manner. —Zindel Segal Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto Co-founder, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy