Robert L. Leahy is a psychologist and author and editor of 29 books dedicated to

cognitive behaviour therapy Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders. CBT focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions (suc ...

. He is Director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York and Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at

Weill Cornell Medical College The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with NewY ...

Early life and education

Leahy was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of James J Leahy, a salesman, and Lillian DeVita, an executive secretary. His parents separated when he was 18 months old and his mother moved Robert to New Haven, Connecticut. He was educated at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

(B.A, M.S, MPhil., PhD) and later completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Medical School under the direction of Aaron T. Beck, M.D., the Founder of Cognitive Therapy.

Career and research interests

Leahy became interested in Beck's Cognitive Therapy model after becoming disillusioned with the psychodynamic model which he felt lacked sufficient empirical support. Many of his clinical books have been instrumental in disseminating the cognitive therapy model in its application to the treatment of depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, jealousy, and emotion regulation. In addition, he has published widely on the application of the cognitive model to the therapeutic relationship, transference and counter-transference, resistance to change, and beliefs about emotion regulation that may underpin problematic strategies for coping with or responding to emotions in the therapeutic context. His clinical and popular audience books have been translated into 21 languages. Leahy has expanded the cognitive model with his social cognitive model of emotion which he refers to as Emotional Schema Therapy. According to this model individuals differ in their beliefs about the legitimacy of certain emotions, their duration, the ability to express emotions, the need to control emotions, how similar their emotions are to those of others and the ability to tolerate ambivalent feelings. These beliefs and the strategies connected to them are referred to as "emotional schemas". The Emotional Schema Model draws on Beck's cognitive model, the metacognitive model advanced by

AdrIan Wells Adrian Wells, Doctor of Philosophy, PhD, CPsychol, is a British Clinical psychology, clinical psychologist who is the creator of metacognitive therapy. He is Professor of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology at the University of Manchester, ...

, the Acceptance and Commitment Model advanced by

Steven C. Hayes Steven C. Hayes (born August 12, 1948) is an American clinical psychologist and Nevada Foundation Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno Department of Psychology, where he is a faculty member in their Ph.D. program in behavior analysis. He is ...

, and on social cognitive research on attribution processes and implicit theories of emotion. Leahy has described how his model can help in understanding and treating jealousy, envy, ambivalence and other emotions and how these emotional schemas can impact intimate relationships and affect the therapeutic relationship. In addition to his work on emotional schemas, Leahy has written about problematic styles of judgment and decision making that are relevant in depression and anxiety disorders. These include biased evaluations in over-estimating or under-estimating risk, sunk-cost effects, regret anticipation, rumination over regret, and inaccurate predictions of emotions following anticipated outcomes.

Awards and achievements

In 2014, Robert L. Leahy received the Aaron T. Beck Award from the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. In 2021 he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Organisational affiliations

He is Past President of The Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, The Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and The International Association of Cognitive Therapy. He is the former Editor of The Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy and current Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cognitive Theapy.

Books

* Bipolar Disorder: A Cognitive Therapy Approach (2001) * Psychology And The Economic Mind: Cognitive Processes and Conceptualization (2002) * Psychological Treatment of Bipolar Disorder (2003) * Roadblocks in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities for Change (2003) * The Worry Cure: Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You (2005) * Contemporary Cognitive Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice (2006) * The Therapeutic Relationship in the Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapies (2007) * Anxiety Free: Unravel Your Fears Before They Unravel You (2009) * Treatment Resistant Anxiety Disorders: Resolving Impasses to Symptom Remission (2009) * Emotion Regulation in Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide (2011) * Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders, 2e (2011) * Overcoming Resistance in Cognitive Therapy (2012) * Emotional Schema Therapy (2015) * Cognitive Therapy Techniques, Second Edition: A Practitioner's Guide (2017) * Science and Practice in Cognitive Therapy: Foundations, Mechanisms, and Applications (2018) * Emotional Schema Therapy: Distinctive Features (2019) * The Jealousy Cure: Learn to Trust, Overcome Possessiveness, and Save Your Relationship (2018) * Don't Believe Everything You Feel: A CBT Workbook to Identify Your Emotional Schemas and Find Freedom from Anxiety and Depression (2020) * If Only... Finding Freedom from Regret (2022)

References

External links

The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leahy, Robert L. 21st-century American psychologists 1946 births Living people Yale University alumni 20th-century American psychologists