Cognitive Therapy for Children, Young People and Families: Considering Service Provision

Jack Tizard Lecture: Cognitive Behaviour Therapies for Children: Passing Fashion or Here to Stay?

The aim of this article is to consider the current and likely future status of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for disturbed children and adolescents. Two definitions of CBT, narrow and broad, are provided and their core components described. Subsequently the historical development of these therapies and their reception by psychotherapists with different orientations is discussed. Assessment and therapeutic CBT approaches are described and the strength of the evidence for their use is briefly reviewed. Finally the challenges these therapies are currently meeting that might enhance or diminish their value are outlined. It is concluded that CBTs offer a most promising approach in the child and adolescent field and are likely to establish and maintain an important place in the therapeutic armoury of the next generation of professionals concerned to help children and young people with psychiatric disorders.