Internet Healthcare Buzzword Spotlight: CBT Files IPO Prospectus

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach primarily targeting psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety, as well as maladaptive thoughts and behaviors associated with functional impairments. CBT addresses not only external manifestations like behavior and emotions but also analyzes patients’ cognitive processes and coping strategies to identify and correct erroneous cognitions. Owing to its efficacy, scientific rigor, and relatively low relapse rates, CBT is favored by most clinical psychologists and stands as the most widely utilized psychotherapy today.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy + Internet Technology

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has four forms: one-on-one therapy, group therapy, self-help bibliotherapy, and online therapy. Among these, internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) is primarily delivered through web-based text content combined with online guidance from therapists. Patients can communicate with therapists via email, interact with other patients in forums, independently learn about CBT knowledge through the internet, and receive online guidance, feedback, and encouragement from therapists. The convenience and time-saving advantages of internet technology have led to increasing attention being paid to iCBT in recent years.



Joyable is an online tool based on cognitive behavioral therapy, dedicated to helping people overcome social anxiety disorder. Joyable primarily assists patients through the following six steps.

1. Consult with a professional instructor:First, the coach will have a 30-minute phone conversation with the user, or communicate via text message or email. The user needs to inform the coach how social anxiety disorder affects their daily life and what their expected goals are for this assistance.

2. Gain a Detailed Understanding of Your Social Anxiety Disorder:With the guidance of a therapist, users will identify scenarios or events that trigger their anxiety, understand the underlying causes of anxiety disorders, and learn how cognitive behavioral therapy can help alleviate their symptoms.

3. Master Key Techniques:After identifying scenarios that trigger social anxiety, users will learn practical techniques to help alleviate and manage their anxiety.

4. Self-challenge process:Apply What You Learn! This segment encourages users to step into specific social settings and put their newly acquired skills into practice.

5. Achieve Expected Goals:Practical activities progress from easy to difficult, allowing users to gradually adapt, build confidence, and ultimately achieve their goals.

6. Reinforce Learning:In the final stage, users need to consolidate the skills they have learned and integrate cognitive behavioral therapy into their daily lives to benefit for a lifetime.
The Joyable program lasts only 12 weeks, with a monthly fee of $99. Currently, Joyable focuses exclusively on social anxiety disorder, but its future goal is to leverage cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help users address various psychological issues, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression.

The Developmental History of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Modern cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be traced back to the behavioral therapy of the early 20th century and the cognitive therapy that emerged in the 1960s, as well as the subsequent integration of these two approaches, which ultimately gave rise to contemporary CBT.



As early as the 1950s and 1960s, behavioral therapy was widely applied by researchers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. In the mid-1950s, Albert Ellis proposed what is now known as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. In the 1960s, Aaron T. Beck developed cognitive therapy, stating that “maladaptive behaviors and emotions stem from maladaptive cognitions.”

At that time, although early behavioral therapy was quite effective for neurotic disorders, it had little success in treating depressive disorders. The therapeutic approaches developed by Albert Ellis and Aaron T. Beck both began to emphasize the importance of cognitive factors in psychotherapy and gradually gained the trust of behavior therapists. In early practice, behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy were often compared to determine which was more effective. From the 1980s to the 1990s, the two approaches gradually merged, a process to which David M. Clark (UK) and David H. Barlow (US), who made significant contributions to the development of treatments for panic disorder, contributed substantially.

Gradually, cognitive behavioral therapy has not only been accepted by the public as a form of psychotherapy but has also become an umbrella term for all therapies based on cognitive psychotherapy.

Medical Applications of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

 Anxiety Disorders
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is highly effective for anxiety disorders in adults. A study by the University of Bath found that teaching Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in schools can significantly reduce the incidence of anxiety disorders in children. When applying Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to anxiety disorders, one essential term is in vivo exposure therapy, which involves direct, face-to-face contact between the patient and the object, activity, or situation that triggers their fear. For example, a woman with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may revisit the site of her trauma accompanied by a therapist to confront it directly. Similarly, a child who fears public speaking may be asked to deliver a speech to overcome their internal anxiety and fear. Evidence demonstrates that such therapeutic approaches are highly effective in treating anxiety disorders.

 Depression, schizophrenia, mood disorders
Patients with depression often experience an increased prevalence of negative thoughts, which lead to cognitive biases; these biases, in turn, reinforce further negative thinking, creating a self-perpetuating cycle. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be tailored to meet individual patient needs by implementing specific psychological interventions, such as correcting distortions and delusions. With long-term application, CBT has proven beneficial in the treatment of depression, schizophrenia, mood disorders, and other conditions.

 Other Diseases
Evidence demonstrates that cognitive behavioral therapy is highly effective for a range of conditions, including eating disorders (anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa), alcohol misuse, chronic lower back pain, personality disorders, substance use disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia, and tic disorders.

Characteristics of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

1. Cognitive Models Based on Emotional Responses:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy posits that it is an individual’s cognition, rather than external environmental factors such as other people, settings, or events, that gives rise to corresponding emotions and behaviors. Its advantage lies in the ability to modify behaviors or emotions by changing thought patterns, without requiring changes in the environment.

2. Short Duration:Compared with other forms of treatment, such as psychoanalysis, which typically takes several years, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has a shorter duration, averaging only 16 sessions (once a week or once every two weeks). Therefore, patients understand from the outset that this is not an open-ended treatment.

3. Joint Efforts by Therapists and Patients:Therapists strive to identify the reasons behind patients' loss of life purpose; they listen, educate, and encourage, while patients are expected to actively express their emotions, learn coping skills, and apply them effectively.

4. Accepting and Resolving Issues:Cognitive behavioral therapy does not tell patients how they should feel; rather, it helps them recognize that adversity is highly likely to occur, whether they wish it or not. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches patients to accept setbacks with equanimity, encouraging them not merely to pursue a positive mindset but to actively apply all available wisdom, knowledge, and resources to address these challenges.

5. Employ the Socratic method:Therapists use this approach to gain a better understanding of patients’ concerns. They encourage patients to ask questions such as, “Why do I feel like everyone around me is mocking me?” or “Are they laughing at other people too?”

6. Efficient Guidance:Each session of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) follows a specific structure and has defined objectives. Every session imparts specialized skills and knowledge, with the therapist guiding patients not on what to do, but on how to achieve it.

7. Homework is particularly critical:If patients spend only one hour per week reflecting on the techniques taught in cognitive behavioral therapy, it may take a considerable amount of time to achieve the desired outcomes. This is why therapists assign reading tasks to patients, encouraging them to apply the learned skills in their daily lives.

By Zhou Yanxun

Editor: Huang Jia