Cognitive therapy er et amerikanske begreb for Kognitiv Terapi.

Gleitman 1991 definerer det på følgende måde:

"An approach to therapy that tries to change some of the patient's habitual modes of thinking. It is related to Behaviour therapy because it regards such thoughts´patterns as a form of behaviour."  (Side A34)

"Cognitive therapists see themselves as more clsely allied to Behaviour therapy...

The basic technique of cognitive therapists is to confront the patients with the contradictions inherent in their maladaptive beliefs...

The job of the therapist is to help the patient to identify the automatic thought and to recognize its irrationality...

he or she takes the role of af sympathetic Socrates who ask one question after another to show the patient that these thoughts about herself and others are irrational end self-defeating" (side 815)