Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Foundations, Theories & Frameworks
Master the core principles, theories, and clinical frameworks of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — from Beck's cognitive model to third-wave approaches — and gain the practical tools to apply CBT with confidence.
Perfect for: Trainee and early-career therapists, counselors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, life coaches, and mental health advocates who want a rigorous, structured grounding in CBT theory and its major clinical frameworks. No prior CBT training is required, though a basic familiarity with psychology concepts is helpful.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the most extensively researched psychological intervention in the world, with decades of evidence supporting its effectiveness across anxiety, depression, trauma, OCD, and beyond. Yet many practitioners, students, and helpers learn CBT techniques in isolation — without ever building the deep theoretical scaffolding that makes those techniques work. This course changes that.
Whether you're a trainee therapist, a counselor expanding your toolkit, a psychologist revisiting the fundamentals, or a curious professional in healthcare or coaching, this course takes you inside CBT from the ground up. You'll explore the intellectual history that shaped CBT, understand why the cognitive model explains human suffering so elegantly, and trace the evolution from first-generation behavior therapy through second-generation cognitive approaches to the mindfulness-based "third wave."
Every module balances theory with application. You won't just learn about cognitive distortions — you'll practice identifying and restructuring them. You won't just read about behavioral activation — you'll design an activity schedule. Each lesson includes real case vignettes, annotated thought records, and structured exercises so that concepts move from your head into your hands.
By the end of this course, you'll have a working map of the entire CBT landscape: where it came from, how its major frameworks fit together, and exactly how to use its core tools in a structured, ethical, and evidence-based way. This is the theoretical backbone your practice has been missing.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain the historical development of CBT from early behaviorism through third-wave approaches
- Describe and apply Beck's cognitive model, including automatic thoughts, intermediate beliefs, and core beliefs
- Identify and restructure the most common cognitive distortions using Socratic questioning techniques
- Distinguish between the major CBT frameworks — classic CBT, REBT, DBT, ACT, and MBCT — and identify their clinical applications
- Conduct a structured CBT case conceptualization, linking presenting problems to underlying cognitive and behavioral patterns
- Design and implement core behavioral interventions including behavioral activation, exposure hierarchies, and behavioral experiments
- Use thought records, activity scheduling, and formulation worksheets as standard clinical tools
- Critically evaluate the evidence base for CBT and apply ethical and cultural considerations when using CBT frameworks
Curriculum
6 modules · 18 lessons
Your teacher
Faith Richardson Johnson
Hi, I'm so glad you're here. I've spent years studying, practicing, and teaching Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — and the question I hear most often from students and early-career clinicians is: *"I know the techniques, but I don't really understand why they work."* That gap between doing CBT and understanding CBT is exactly what this course is designed to close. I believe that theory isn't the dry part of therapy training — it's the part that makes everything else make sense. When you truly understand the cognitive model, behavioral principles, and the logic behind each framework, you become a more flexible, confident, and effective practitioner. I designed this course to be the rigorous, accessible, and genuinely useful foundation I wish I'd had early in my own training. I can't wait to guide you through it.
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