Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a structured, collaborative, goal-oriented psychotherapy that focuses on current symptoms, and teaches specific skills and strategies for managing them. By focusing on the interaction between your thinking patterns, behaviors, and their emotions, CBT combines cognitive and behavioral strategies into a powerful treatment for anxiety, depression, and various behavioral problems. Cognitive techniques teach ways to alter unhealthy and often inaccurate thinking patterns, beliefs and attitudes that are tied to bad feelings and maladaptive actions. For example, behavioral techniques teach ways to break connections between challenging situations (such as public speaking) and unhealthy reactions to them (such as fear and avoidance). CBT is active, relatively brief, and often involves "homework" assignments to practice therapy skills. An abundance of research over the past several decades supports the effectiveness of CBT for treating many emotional and behavioral problems.