The Situation Has Clearly Changed: So What Are We Going to Do About It?

Although cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) has been an enormous empirical and practical success over its 50 + year history, the situational factors that led to its success are changing. In this paper I briefly summarize the history of CBT, and list a number of current challenges that could be dangerous to the future health of CBT if they are ignored or mishandled. I make six recommendations that I believe will be of help going forward: focusing on theory and basic principles; embracing transdiagnostic thinking even more strongly; abandoning syndromal classification once and for all; creating a functional diagnostic system with treatment utility; integrating biology into behavioral science by aligning with modern multidimensional, multilevel evolution science; and becoming more serious about delivery systems. The future of CBT could be exciting if we are able to adjust to changing conditions in a flexible way.