The purpose of cognitive behavioral therapy is the attend to thoughts, perceptions, judgements, self-statements, and unconscious assumptions through cognitive restructuring such as changing a pattern of thought or changes in thinking that can change feelings, behaviors, and symptoms. Cognitive behavioral therapy is recommended as a treatment for a multitude of mental health issues and disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders. CBT is a contrasting treatment is it targets changing our way of thinking. It specifically challenges and changes our negative thought patterns and reinforces or replaces them with positive thoughts and patterns.
Evidence has shown cognitive behavioral therapy to be an effective method of treatment for patients to overcome anxieties, depression, and even chronic pain. Cognitive behavioral therapy has also demonstrated a positive effect on how patients view life events. The purpose of this research study was to observe the relationship between the predictiveness of positive and negative life events in patients with depression who were in cognitive behavioral therapy. The methods involved 67 patients being asked to estimate the probability of 40 events in their following at both intake and posttreatment. Patients were also instructed to report whether or not those events occurred. The results showed that the informativeness of predictions was higher for positive events and lower for negative events. This implies that cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective way of transforming an individual’s negative thoughts into more positive and constructive thoughts and predictions (Ezawa, 2020).