You wouldn’t think so with a likely 1000+ delegates, to the British Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapies (BABCP) Annual get-together in 2 weeks time. But the key distinguishing feature of CBT, is the setting and review of homework. My inspection of 100’s of records [Scott (2026)] shows that it is conspicuously absent. ‘Alleged CBT’ abounds, but there is no documentary evidence that it takes place in routine practice. Whither accountability?
CBT appears to mean whatever a therapist wants it to mean. So much for evidence-based CBT! There is a transdiagnostic version of CBT called the Unified Protocol, but there have been no sightings of homework associated with this, in the 100s of GP records that I have reviewed.
It appears that we are invited to believe by the BABCP power-holders and Courses that CBT actually happens. Is CBT a Dodo?
Dr Mike Scott