Cognitive therapy (or cognitive behavioral therapy) helps the client to uncover and alter distortions of thought or perceptions which may be causing or prolonging psychological distress.
认知疗法（认识行为疗法）帮助来访者发现并且改善由于想法或者知觉扭曲而导致或加剧的心理痛苦。
Underlying Theory of Cognitive Therapy
认知疗法基于的原理
The central insight of cognitive therapy as originally formulated over three decades ago is that thoughts mediate between stimuli, such as external events, and emotions. As in the figure below, a stimulus elicits a thought — which might be an evaluative judgment of some kind — which in turn gives rise to an emotion. In other words, it is not the stimulus itself which somehow elicits an emotional response directly, but our evaluation of or thought about that stimulus. (Some practitioners use Ellis’s ABC model, to describe the role of thoughts or attitudes mediating between events and our emotional responses.) Two ancillary assumptions underpin the approach of the cognitive therapist: 1) the client is capable of becoming aware of his or her own thoughts and of changing them, and 2) sometimes the thoughts elicited by stimuli distort or otherwise fail to reflect reality accurately.
认知疗法的核心见解最初的明确表述起于三十年前，它认为，人的想法在 刺激物（如：外界的事件）和情绪之间有调节作用。一个刺激引出了一个想法-这个想法可能是某种评估性的判断-它依次引起了一种情绪。 换句话说，不是刺激本身以某种办法直接引出了情绪反应，而是我们对这个刺激的评估或者是想法引出了情绪反应。（一些从业者使用艾里斯的ABC 模型来描述想法或者是态度在时间和情绪反应之间扮演的角色。）认识疗法的两个辅助的支持假设：1）来访者有能力意识到自己的想法并且改变他们; 2)有些时候，刺激引发的想法被扭曲或者在某个层面不能准确的反应现实。
A common ‘everyday example’ of alternative thoughts or beliefs about the same experience and their resulting emotions might be the case of an individual being turned down for a job. She might believe that she was passed over for the job because she was fundamentally incompetent. In that case, she might well become depressed, and she might be less likely to apply for similar jobs in the future. If, on the other hand, she believed that she was passed over because the field of candidates was exceptionally strong, she might feel disappointed but not depressed, and the experience probably wouldn’t dissuade her from applying for other similar jobs.
应聘失败可以作为一个普遍的例子来说明对于同一经历因持有不同的想法或者信念而引发的不同的情绪。她可能相信她落选了是因为她根本上就无能，这样他很可能变得沮丧，并且很可能以后就不在去应聘类似的工作了。但是，另一方面，如果她相信她的落选是因为应试者的领域知识出奇的强，她可能觉得失望，但是不会沮丧，进而这次经历也不会妨碍她申请其他类似的工作。
Cognitive therapy suggests that psychological distress is caused by distorted thoughts about stimuli giving rise to distressed emotions. The theory is particularly well developed (and empirically supported) in the case of depression, where clients frequently experience unduly negative thoughts which arise automatically even in response to stimuli which might otherwise be experienced as positive. For instance, a depressed client hearing “please stop talking in class” might think “everything I do is wrong; there is no point in even trying”. The same client might hear “you’ve received top marks on your essay” and think “that was a fluke; I won’t ever get a mark like that again”, or he might hear “you’ve really improved over the last term” and think “I was really abysmal at the start of term”. Any of these thoughts could lead to feelings of hopelessness or reduced self esteem, maintaining or worsening the individual’s depression.
认知疗法提出心理痛苦是由于对事物扭曲的想法而引发痛苦的情绪而导致的。 这个理论在抑郁症方面进步突出（并且经过实践检验），抑郁症的来访者经常会经历过分消极想法，这些消极想法甚至自动反应在一些积极的经历上。例如，当一个沮丧的来访者听到“请不要在课堂上讲话”时，他会想到“我做什么都是错的，连尝试也是没有意义的”。相同的来访者也许在听到“你的作文得了高分”时会想到“那只是侥幸的，我再也不会得到那样的分数了”，或者也许在他听到“你上学期真的提高了很多”时想到“我在学期开始时真是糟糕透了”。这些想法中的任何一个都会导致绝望或者降低自尊心，维持或者恶化个体的抑郁状态。
Usually cognitive therapeutic work is informed by an awareness of the role of the client’s behaviour as well (thus the term cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT). The task of cognitive therapy or CBT is partly to understand how the three components of emotions, behaviours and thoughts interrelate, and how they may be influenced by external stimuli — including events which may have occurred early in the client’s life.
一般情况下，认知治疗学家的工作都会被告知也要注意来访者的行为（所以有了术语认知行为疗法，简称CBT）。认知疗法或者认知行为疗法的一部分任务是明白情绪，行为，想法这个三个元素之间的相互关系，并且他们是如何被外界刺激影响-包括来访者早年发生的事件。
