Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT has been pretty heavily criticized by people within the "alternatives" community and in particular by a number of Mad in America (MIA) bloggers and commenters in the past few years. In a way that isn’t surprising, because many of us are looking for radical change, and CBT often appears to be part of the establishment, especially within the therapy world.--But while I’m all for criticizing what’s wrong with CBT, especially with bad CBT, I think there’s also a danger in getting so caught up in pointing out real or imagined flaws that we fail to notice where CBT can be part of the solution, helping us move toward more humanistic and effective methods. I would propose that we instead attempt a “balanced approach,” noticing both where CBT is likely to help and where it is not, and discovering what can be done to build on the strengths of CBT while avoiding problems with the misapplication or overstated marketing of it. … [click on title for the rest of the post]