ACADEMIA Letters

How Does Adaptive Therapy Compare with

Cognitive-behavioral Therapy
Alexandrea Day, Executive Director, iAffirm, 501 (c) 3 Non-profit

Adaptive Therapy finds itself under the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) umbrella as a
psychological therapy, founded on the premise that each of us is a human made of a state
of consciousness, a subconscious, and a conscience that is embodied for its expression and
service. To offer a method to find purpose, it’s important that this method be described in two
ways. 1) For those that need evidence-based methods that prove effectiveness vs. anecdotal
results, and 2) For those that lean toward spiritual healing and integrate personal growth with
faith.
CBT has been found to be the most effective method available to clients to discover and
alter behavior that leads to well-being (Graske, 2010). It is based on the cognitive model of
mental illness, initially developed by Beck, 1964. The cognitive model suggests that people’s
emotions and behaviors are influenced by their perceptions of events and not by the situation
itself. This means that a number of people could experience the same event and yet have
different perceptions based upon past experience, knowledgebase, and whether or not a person
has experienced the same event before (Beck, 1964).
Fundamental to the cognitive model is the way in which cognition (the way we think about
things and the content of these thoughts) is conceptualized. Beck, 1976 outlined three levels
of cognition:

1. Core beliefs

2. Dysfunctional assumptions

3. Negative automatic thoughts

Academia Letters, October 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alexandrea Day, alexandrea@iaffirm.org

Citation: Day, A. (2021). How Does Adaptive Therapy Compare with Cognitive-behavioral Therapy. Academia
Letters, Article 3632. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3632.

1
 Core beliefs are beliefs about self, others, and the world. Core beliefs are generally learned
early in life and are influenced by childhood experiences and traumas throughout life.
In CBT dysfunctional assumptions are considered rigid, conditional ‘rules for living’ that
people adopt. These may be unrealistic and therefore, maladaptive. For example, one may live
by the rule that It’s better not to try than to risk failing’. In the Adaptive Therapy perspective,
a therapist would want to ask why a client has chosen to believe this to discover the core
belief underlying it. In fact, Adaptive Therapy seeks to identify the original event and the
original feeling assigned to it, as originally perceived. So, a therapist would ask, “Why do
you feel _________(the feeling) when you experience ______________(the event) to drill
down into the unconscious memory of it. Once identified, in Adaptive Therapy, we create
a de-programming affirmation to uproot the old perception and then re-program what the
client would like to believe instead. These are then applied while practicing mindfulness
over a period of a couple of weeks to make a permanent change in thoughts and behavior.
Thousands of people have benefited from Adaptive Therapy as conveyed anecdotally. New
research is underway to validate anecdotal stories of success.
In CBT, negative automatic thoughts (NATs) are thoughts that are involuntarily experi-
enced in certain situations. In Adaptive Therapy, we call these “triggers” by bubbling up to
consciousness the feeling associated with the past experience, triggered by a current similar
event. In fact, we believe that this link (emotion) is the pathway to the core belief and tying the
current event triggering the emotion is the direct link between the current and past experience.
In CBT, a formulation process is used to understand the causes, precipitants, and main-
taining influences of a person’s problems (Eels, 1997). The formulation is intended to make
sense of the individual’s experience and aid the mutual understanding of the individual’s dif-
ficulties.
Formulations can be developed using different formats, exemplified by different ways of
formulating, for example, depression. Beck, et al, 1979 created a longitudinal formulation
of depression. Within this formulation, early experiences contribute to the development of
core beliefs, which lead to the development of dysfunctional assumptions which are later
activated following an event that produces the symptoms of depression. Formulations can also
be cross-sectional. For example, The ‘hot-cross bun model’ (Greenberger & Padesky, 1995),
emphasizes how an individual’s thoughts, feelings, behavior, and physical symptoms interact.
Adaptive Therapy has also found that the link between physical symptoms and emotional
states, having many clients experience quick dissipation and end to physical symptoms upon
the reversal of a core belief.
The formulation in Adaptive Therapy is that humans are programmed with thousands of
core beliefs that produce angst if they are violated. An example of violating a belief would

Academia Letters, October 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alexandrea Day, alexandrea@iaffirm.org

Citation: Day, A. (2021). How Does Adaptive Therapy Compare with Cognitive-behavioral Therapy. Academia
Letters, Article 3632. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3632.

2
be: Being called on spontaneously to speak in front of a group surrounding him/her, when
a core belief like, “I need to be quiet,” is triggered, resulting in an intense feeling such as
being terrified and sensing the desire to vomit, hands start sweating, and as a feeling of light-
headedness overwhelms them. Our core belief activates emotion-related brain areas triggering
the observed physiological response (e.g., desire to vomit, sweating, light-headedness).
So, based upon the example above, two pieces of information must be identified during
Adaptive Therapy, to ask the right question allowing drill-down to the core belief (I must be
quiet):

• Current Event that’s causing cognitive dissonance (asked in real-tie to stand up and
speak to the group)

• The negative feeling that bubbles up (terrified)

• The question is posed to the client: “Why do you feel terrified when asked to speak in
front of the group?”

• In this example, the core belief is: “I must be quiet.”

Just like in a computer, programming is to direct tasks in a specific way. Humans are much
the same only a computer can’t violate its programming whereas a human can. However, once
a violation occurs, the host uses cognitive dissonance to compel conformity once again. In
the event above, the response would be, a shaking of the head, and possibly a murmur, “I
can’t.” In an hour or two cognitive resonance will return with stress hormones being dealt
with biologically and the feeling of terrified lowering itself back into the unconscious world it
resides in, attached to public speaking and most probably a number of other events and core
beliefs.
If one retains faulty perceptions throughout life and interacts with the world, he/she will
violate belief systems and cause “symptoms.” A symptom could be a pain, ache, exhaustion,
even pathology, etc., or an unwanted emotional state. Therefore, it only makes sense to identify
and modify any core beliefs that result in cognitive dissonance. Even if one conforms well to
their programming, the problem is that some of these perceptions will result in difficulty or
inability to leverage one’s talents, develop a purpose in life or benefit from even luck coming
their way.
The evidence-based research is underway for those that lean scientific. This methodology
can also live within spiritual psychology, as the Self is recognized and seen as the real being-
ness of an individual, in contrast to personality being the identification of the person, as in
some traditional psychological perspectives (Hofmann & Asmundson, 2008).

Academia Letters, October 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alexandrea Day, alexandrea@iaffirm.org

Citation: Day, A. (2021). How Does Adaptive Therapy Compare with Cognitive-behavioral Therapy. Academia
Letters, Article 3632. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3632.

3
 Adaptive Therapy recognizes the personality as a collection of core beliefs that allow
categorization which is found to be self-limiting (Aldao & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012). Anyone
can modify their perceptions from experience and reframe them to generate instead a positive
outcome, independent of personality.

REFERENCES
Craske, MG. Cognitive-behavioral therapy. (2010) American Psychological Association.

Beck, JS. Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond. (1964) New York: Guildford Press.

Beck, AT. Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. (1976) New York, NY: Interna-
tional Universities Press.

Beck, AT, Rush, J, Shaw, B, Emery, G. Cognitive Therapy of Depression. (1979) New York:
Guildford Press.

Eels, T. Handbook of Psychotherapy Case Formulation. (1997) New York: Guilford Press.

Greenberger, D, Padesky, C/ Mind Over Mood: A Cognitive Therapy Treatment Manual for
Clients. (1995) New York: Guilford Press.

Hofmann, SG, Asmundson, GJG. Acceptance and mindfulness-based therapy: New wave or
old hat? (2008) Clinical Psychology Review, 28(1), 1-16.

Aldao, A, Nolen-Hoeksema, S. When are adaptive strategies most predictive of psychopathol-

ogy? (2012) Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(1), 276–281.

Academia Letters, October 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alexandrea Day, alexandrea@iaffirm.org

Citation: Day, A. (2021). How Does Adaptive Therapy Compare with Cognitive-behavioral Therapy. Academia
Letters, Article 3632. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3632.