In cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), maladaptive thoughts influence emotions and behavior. Which of the following is a core CBT technique?

Prepare for the Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor Exam with essential resources and insights. Utilize multiple choice questions, flashcards, and study tips to confidently tackle your licensing test.

In CBT, altering thoughts is central, and the technique that directly targets maladaptive thinking is cognitive restructuring. This approach guides clients to identify automatic thoughts that arise in response to a situation, examine the evidence for and against those thoughts, and replace them with more balanced, realistic interpretations. By changing how a person thinks, you influence the emotions that come with those thoughts and, in turn, the behaviors that follow. For example, when someone thinks, “I’m going to embarrass myself,” cognitive restructuring helps them assess the likelihood of that outcome, consider past successes, and develop a more reasonable thought like, “I can prepare, I can handle questions, and even if I stumble a bit, I can recover.”

Dream interpretation is associated with psychodynamic approaches that explore hidden meanings in dreams. Transference analysis looks at how clients project feelings from past relationships onto the therapist, guiding exploration of unresolved dynamics. Free association is a psychoanalytic technique used to reveal unconscious material by sharing thoughts as they come. These methods are not the typical core technique in CBT, which centers on modifying conscious thoughts to change emotions and behavior.