The Inaugural Issue of The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist

With the publication of this inaugural issue we launch The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist (tCBT). This new journal will offer high-quality, professional development-focused articles that advance the practice of the behavioural and cognitive psychotherapies. tCBT will be published quarterly, featuring articles on clinical and professional issues, which contribute to the theory, practice and evolution of the cognitive and behavioural therapies.

tCBT is a new publication from the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP), the lead organization for CBT in the UK. The BABCP is a professional, scientific and interdisciplinary organization whose aims are to promote the growth and development of both the behavioural and cognitive psychotherapies as professional activities and scientific discipline.

The cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies have revolutionized the field of psychological therapy over the last 30 years. A common strand throughout is the commitment to empirically underpinned and grounded cognitive behavioural psychotherapy. The scientist-practitioner and clinical-science approach has clinical practice and the client voice at its heart. The scientist-practitioners who have had an enduring influence on current theoretical views in psychological therapies such as Aaron T. Beck, Jack Rachman, David Barlow, Joseph Wolpe, Albert Ellis, Paul M. Salkovskis and David M. Clark amongst others, have all been researcher-clinicians who listened to and sought to understand their clients’ unfolding stories and experiences as both a starting point for research ideas, inspiration and as a continuing part of their ongoing research efforts. The development of clinical practice and the refinement of theory and the synergy between them now indicates what type of interventions should be used within a practice framework that is guided by structure, empirically based strategies and processes that employ active collaboration with the client and problem-solving with homework assignments being a key feature.

The primary aim of tCBT is to publish papers that are professional development-focused through the description of new developments; articles that are practice-focused and detail clinical interventions, research reports concerning the practice of cognitive behaviour therapy, detailed case reports, audits that are relevant to practice, and reviews of clinical scales and other assessment methods. The journal will also publish articles that have education, training or supervision as their focus. It will also include reviews of recently published literature that is directly relevant to practitioners. A particular feature of the journal is that its electronic nature is designed to ensure timeliness of publication and professional debate whilst also ensuring rigorous standards in the dissemination of high-quality materials with relevance to the practice of the cognitive and behavioural therapies. An important feature of tCBT is that its online form means that multimedia-based publications will also be considered either as stand-alone professional development materials or as a way of illustrating or enhancing text-based articles. The journal will also respond rapidly to developments in the field with commentaries and electronic discussion on papers published.

The launch of tCBT comes at an important time in large-scale dissemination of cognitive behavioural psychotherapy with the emergent agenda of improving access to psychological therapy (IAPT). The editorial team of tCBT are keen to ensure that papers in this journal are relevant to the existing secondary care-based and new rapidly expanded primary-care workforce within cognitive behavioural psychotherapy through the significant educational and professional development focus of this new journal. The launching of tCBT is an exciting development, and the BABCP and the editorial team are optimistic that the journal will make an important contribution to the development of professional practice in the field of cognitive behavioural psychotherapy for many years to come.