The cognitive therapy introduced by Aaron T. Beck in the mid-1960s has had an incredible journey, to the extent that it leads over other psychotherapies academically, research-wise, and clinically. For example, cognitive therapy has been recognized as the "gold standard" of psychotherapy we have today, because:
- It is the most researched psychotherapy
- No other psychotherapy has been systematically proven to be superior to cognitive therapy, and if there are differences, they typically favor cognitive therapy
- There is room for improvement in the effectiveness and understanding of the mechanisms of change, so that cognitive therapy can serve as a substantial platform for incorporating new data.
The introduction of cognitive therapy at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Athens started with cautious steps in 1981, with my return from the USA to Greece, where I began university lectures and courses on cognitive therapy. My efforts took shape with lectures in other psychiatric clinics, the organization of seminars, and the publication of my first book "Cognitive Therapy: Theory and Practice," with a foreword by Professor Kostas Stefanis. Under my presidency, the 1st Pan-Hellenic Conference on Cognitive Therapies took place in 2007.
More than 25 years have passed since the publication of my first book. At the same time, the advancement of cognitive therapy became increasingly evident, as did the need to document and integrate clinical skills, especially in the treatment of anxiety disorders, where the most research and progress has been made.
Thus, I decided to write about cognitive therapy in anxiety disorders, which are the most common mental disorders in the general population, with a lifetime prevalence of 16% to 31%, while the next most common, mood disorders, have a lifetime prevalence of 12%.
In short, the book was created to update cognitive-behavioral therapies in anxiety disorders and to highlight the emergence of third-generation therapies or the so-called third wave of cognitive-behavioral therapies.
