Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Spanish

What the two halves of the name mean

MedlinePlus, in its article on CBT for back pain, explains the name this way: focusing on your thoughts makes up the cognitive part of CBT, and focusing on your actions is the behavioral part. CBT is one kind of psychotherapy, which the National Institute of Mental Health says is also called talk therapy and refers to a variety of treatments that aim to help a person identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. NIMH adds that therapists may use one primary approach or incorporate elements from multiple approaches.

What it means

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an approach to psychotherapy that helps a person become aware of automatic ways of thinking that are inaccurate or harmful, question those thoughts, understand how the thoughts affect their emotions and behavior, and change self-defeating behavior patterns. That is how the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) describes it. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) dictionary calls it a type of psychotherapy that helps patients change their behavior by changing the way they think and feel about certain things, and says it is used to treat mental, emotional, personality, and behavioral disorders. NIMH names exposure therapy, used for anxiety disorders, as a type of CBT. In an article about CBT for back pain, MedlinePlus describes CBT as a form of psychological therapy that most often involves 10 to 20 meetings with a therapist.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Spanish

Spanish term: Terapia cognitivo-conductual
Gender and article: feminine: la terapia cognitivo-conductual
Pronunciation: teh-RAH-pyah kohg-nee-TEE-boh kohn-dook-TWAHL

Other Spanish terms	Where it is used	Note
TCC	General	Abbreviation given by the National Cancer Institute's Spanish dictionary as another name; MedlinePlus en español also uses it, as la TCC.
psicoterapia cognitivo-conductual	General	Given by the National Cancer Institute's Spanish dictionary as another name for terapia cognitivo-conductual.
terapia cognitivo conductual	General	Spelling without the hyphen, used by MedlinePlus en español.

Terapia cognitivo-conductual, written with a hyphen, is the entry of the National Cancer Institute's Spanish dictionary, which defines it as a type of psychotherapy (tipo de psicoterapia) and gives psicoterapia cognitivo-conductual, psicoterapia cognoscitivo-conductual and the abbreviation TCC among its other names. MedlinePlus en español writes the same name without the hyphen, terapia cognitivo conductual (TCC), and treats it as feminine: la terapia cognitivo conductual, la TCC.

MedlinePlus en español explains the two halves of the name: focusing on thoughts is la parte cognitiva, and focusing on actions is la parte conductual. The NCI entry glosses conductas as comportamientos (behaviors). In the same MedlinePlus en español article the meetings are sesiones and the professional is el terapeuta, and the therapy is described as una forma de psicoterapia, where the English version says "a form of psychological therapy". The English abbreviation CBT corresponds to TCC in the Spanish text.

Phrases for an appointment

What a patient or a clinician might say, in English and Spanish:

Who	English	Spanish
Clinician	I would like to recommend cognitive behavioral therapy. Have you heard of it?	Quisiera recomendarle la terapia cognitivo-conductual. ¿Ha oído hablar de ella?
Patient	Is it a kind of psychotherapy? What happens in a session?	¿Es un tipo de psicoterapia? ¿Qué se hace en una sesión?
Clinician	In the sessions, you learn to notice negative thoughts and practice changing them.	En las sesiones, usted aprende a reconocer los pensamientos negativos y practica cómo cambiarlos.
Patient	How many sessions will I need, and how often?	¿Cuántas sesiones voy a necesitar, y con qué frecuencia?
Clinician	It most often takes between ten and twenty sessions.	En la mayoría de los casos, son entre diez y veinte sesiones.
Patient	I have been feeling a lot of anxiety, and my thoughts keep me awake at night.	He sentido mucha ansiedad, y mis pensamientos no me dejan dormir por la noche.
Patient	Does my insurance cover cognitive behavioral therapy?	¿Mi seguro cubre la terapia cognitivo-conductual?
Clinician	Between sessions, I will ask you to practice what we worked on.	Entre una sesión y otra, le voy a pedir que practique lo que trabajamos.

In 9 languages

Language	Term
English	Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Spanish (Español)	Terapia cognitivo-conductual
Chinese (中文)	認知行為治療
Korean (한국어)	인지행동치료
Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt)	Liệu pháp nhận thức hành vi
Filipino (Tagalog)	Cognitive behavioral therapy
Portuguese (Português)	Terapia cognitivo-comportamental
Thai (ภาษาไทย)	การบำบัดทางปัญญาและพฤติกรรม
Japanese (日本語)	認知行動療法

Where you'll see it

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Related terms

Your right to an interpreter in the United States

If English is not your primary language and you have difficulty communicating in English, you may need an interpreter or a translated document when you visit a doctor or dentist, go to the emergency room or pick up a prescription. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights states that two federal laws, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, require programs that receive its funding to provide language access services free of charge.

You can ask when you make the appointment or at the front desk: "I need an interpreter, please." «Necesito un intérprete, por favor.»

More terms: Mental health

All terms in this area: Mental health — Salud mental

Sources

This page is a language reference. It is not medical advice.