Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on the interaction between thoughts, behavior, and emotions, the settings they occur in, and their consequences.Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on decreasing maladaptive emotions, behaviors and thoughts and increasing adaptive ones through goal-oriented therapeutic interventions. CBT is evidence based , meaning research supports it's effectiveness. It focuses on what maintains the behavior, thoughts and emotions and how to change them.

A systems approach is most effective when working with people suffering from emotional, behavioral, developmental, head injuries, chronic pain and related problems. This means working with all aspects of the person's environment impacting his/her behavior. When appropriate, therapy is conducted in the natural setting. This enables the development of coordinated behavior plans in the setting where the problems exist. Homework is often given to help the patient learn how to change problematic thoughts, behaviors, and emotions in their natural settings.