Hi Stephanie--

If you review the different threads in the Forum, this has 'kind of' been addressed, but usually in relativistic terms, When I say relativistic I mean that usually the discussion gravitates to certain areas needing 'more research' and there are 'lots of unanswered questions' about such and such. Dr. Pretzer's replies to the 'Uncertainities thread' kind of address these issues. You'll notice in the general psychotherapy literature there aren't too many texts on the "negative effects" of therapy. Actually I know of one book by Dr, R. Chessick but that wasn't about CBT. I can't recall any discussion that directly talks about CBT having a therapeutic downside per se.

I presume that people with cognitive disabilities and expressive and receptive language disorders would not be good candidates.

I'm sure that even CBT when not practiced in a competent fashion has lots of downsides. The objective competency assessment of comparing one CBT therapist to another must be difficult-- but here again I'm sure Dr. Pretzer will be a valuable resource for you.

-Doug