After a wonderful Pesach hiatus, it’s time to get back to work! 

Looking over my previous posts, it seems that many are devoted, at least indirectly, to the relationship between the cognitive therapist and the client. That relationship is one characterized by mutual discovery: as cognitive therapists we strive to enter the matrix of the client’s thoughts, to see the world as he sees it, and then to invite him to reconstruct his ideas. In new ideas lay the potential for new ways of thinking, living, and relating. 

Cognitive therapy however strives to extend the therapeutic relationship into the client’s life. This is primarily done through homework assignments and skills building. In the coming posts, we’ll consider some of these assignments and skills. Many of them will be drawn from the exciting world of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), as well as the wonderful writings of one of the most prolific exponents of cognitive therapy, Mathew McKay.