CBT is a modern talk-based therapy that has grown in popularity in recent years, largely because there is a large evidence base from research and clinical practice showing that it is an effective therapy for a wide range of mental health problems including, but not limited to, depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive behavior. This report seeks to outline the origins and history of CBT before considering and analyzing the main tools and techniques in use in CBT. There is continuous development and this therapy is constantly evolving to ensure that the methods remain effective even as society changes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIt can be argued that the origins of CBT are rooted in ancient Greece. Socrates began asking questions to support and encourage people to think about problems to work towards a rational solution, much like CBT today, in fact he gives his name to a CBT tool which will be discussed in a later section. Indeed, the pioneers of the development of CBT, Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis, have highlighted that their approach is rooted in the Stoic philosophy of ancient Greece. The 17th century philosopher, René Descartes, was the first to accentuate the relationship between mind and body. He viewed the two as separate entities and the mind as the source of the soul. He wrote about their interaction and realized that the mind could control the body, although he thought this was due to animal spirits moving through the body and controlling the nerves and muscles. Before the 18th century, mental health problems were considered “madness,” and belief theories regarding possible treatments came from alchemy, astrology, and belief systems of spirits or gods. From philosophical and biological origins, psychology emerged in the late 19th century as a unique discipline for examining the human mind and patterns of behavior. The first psychological laboratory was opened by William Wundt at the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879. This allows experimentation to measurably demonstrate hypotheses rather than basing theories on beliefs that establish psychology as a science. The emergence and development of the behaviorist branch of psychology occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1890 Pavlov conducted experiments with dogs. He noticed that the dogs salivated when he and his assistants entered the room, even when they had no food. Pavlov measured the amount of saliva produced by dogs when they were presented with food. He used a bell as a neutral stimulus and rang the bell every time food was given to the dogs. After this was repeated several times, Pavlov discovered that the bell alone triggered levels of salivation similar to those obtained when the dogs were presented with food. The dogs had learned to associate the bell with food. This conditioned response is known as the Pavlovian response, and linking a conditioned response (in this case the bell) to an unconditioned stimulus, such as food, is known as Pavlovian conditioning (1902). As the name suggests, behaviorism focuses on observing the behavioral response to external stimuli. In this phase it was thought that it was impossible to scientifically examine the mind so we focused on measurable behavioral responses, in fact Watson stated that stimuli only modeled behavior, in other words only environmental factors caused the resulting behavior, genetic or instinctive factors were irrelevant to behaviorists. Skinner considered classical conditioning.