Judith Beck
As President of Beck Institute, Judith S. Beck, PhD, provides the vision and leadership to improve lives worldwide through excellence and innovation in Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy. She is also Clinical Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania where she teaches psychiatric residents. She received her doctoral degree from Penn in 1982. Dr. Beck divides her time among administration, supervision and teaching, clinical work, curriculum development, research, and writing. She has been a consultant for several National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) studies, has developed widely-adopted assessment scales for children and adolescents, and has made hundreds of presentations nationally and internationally on various applications of CBT.
Integrating Recovery-Oriented Principles into Cognitive Behavior Therapy
In Recovery-Oriented CBT, therapists develop strength-based and traditional problem-based conceptualizations and use both to plan treatment. Several activities are added to the beginning of treatment, including exploring clients’ best life periods, and identifying their aspirations and values. Therapists help clients identify specific goals for each session and steps they want to take in the coming week that are in line with their aspirations and values. Then standard CBT strategies are used to help resolve potential obstacles to taking these steps. Therapists encourage clients to engage in highly meaningful experiences during the week that lead to a sense of purpose, hope, control, well-being, connection, competence, and/or empowerment. Therapists also help clients draw positive conclusions about their current experiences and feel positive emotions in and out of sessions. To build resilience, therapists help clients recognize how they overcome obstacles.
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify clients’ lifetime strengths, positive qualities, and resources
2. Strengthen adaptive beliefs through drawing conclusions about positive experiences
3. Identify and strengthen values and aspiraitons.