Present and future of cognitive psychotherapies

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to make a theoretical reflection on the past and future of cognitive psychotherapies, exemplified in Beck’s model, considered as one that has a high development and contribution to the field.
The main section, reflection on its present, describes how cognitive psychotherapy is departing from its origins, i.e., to become a distinctive clinical model. In this sense, present characteristics that show the relevance of the tendency toward application and to the development of micro-studies could be problematic as they reflect the lacking of a higher theoretical reflection. Besides, we could consider problematic nowadays tendency of cognitive psychotherapy toward neuroscience and to the tendency of encompassing different therapies under the heading of a third wave.
Having offered this context some reflections about the future development of cognitive psychotherapies will be made, especially those ones that could contribute to the recognition of cognitive psychotherapy as a clear and distinctive approach, with its own specific contribution to the field of psychological treatments.