Final answer:
It is true that Beck's cognitive therapy originally targeted the specific symptoms of depression and the reasons depressed clients give for these symptoms, focusing on understanding and modifying cognitive distortions to treat depression.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is true that Beck's therapeutic approach originally focused on specific symptoms of depressed clients and the reasons they give for these symptoms. Aaron T. Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy, recognized that the content loaded with the personal meanings that depressed patients attach to themselves and their experiences (cognitive distortions) could serve as a basis for understanding and treating depression.Beck's cognitive therapy initially targeted the specific symptoms present in depression, such as negative thinking or cognitive distortions, which include overgeneralization, catastrophizing, and personalized thinking.
The therapist works to help clients recognize, challenge, and modify these distortions. By addressing these cognitive aspects of depression, Beck’s therapy attempts to alleviate the symptoms and modify the underlying cognitive structures believed to contribute to the maintenance of depression.Beck's work emphasized the link between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, and the importance of a structured, present-oriented psychotherapy directed toward solving current problems and changing unhelpful thinking and behavior.