**4. Cognitive therapy (CT)**

The father of cognitive therapy is Aaron Beck. Like Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck was originally trained in psychoanalysis, but he also became relatively dissatisfied with the conceptualizations that the psychodynamic paradigm offered for various emotional

disorders [3]. For example, in the 1960s, Beck found that a number of cognitive factors frequently associated with depression were systematically ignored in favor of psychoanalytic conceptualizations that accentuated the motivational-affective dyad [1].

The cognitive model proposed by Aaron Beck emphasizes the idea that distorted thinking and unrealistic cognitive assessments can negatively affect our emotions and behaviors. Evaluations are pre-formed (shaped) by mental schemas, that is, cognitive structures that organize and process information taken from the outside. The cognitive patterns of mentally developed people allow/make realistic assessments of life events and lead to functional, healthy emotional experiences. In contrast, individuals who have developed dysfunction are primarily engaged in distorted assessments that lead to emotional dysfunction [5].

The central goal of cognitive therapy is to replace the distorted assessments that clients apply to life events with their realistic and adaptive variants. Cognitive-type therapeutic interventions are based on collaborative psycho-educational approaches and involve the design of specific learning experiences through which clients are guided/prepared:

