If someone mentions they are in psychotherapy, do you picture them stretched out on a couch, relating their dreams and thoughts to a silent, probably bearded, analyst? Therapy has come a long way since the days of Sigmund Freud. The most popular kind of psychotherapy today doesn’t even need to involve a therapist, it can be delivered on CD-rom or via the internet. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has taken the world of mental health by storm in the last twenty years. Dr Raj Persaud meets Aaron Beck the founding father of the most successful therapy of current times, to discuss how his departure from the accepted wisdom of the day came about and how cognitive therapy theories can also be relevant to international politics. Claudia Hammond visits two projects to find out how Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be used to help patients suffering from physical illness. At the Input Pain Management Unit at St Thomas' hospital in London Claudia talks to Consultant Clinical Psychologist Amanda Williams and some of the patients attending the four week course. And in Irvine, she meets Dr Craig White, Macmillan Consultant in Psychosocial Oncology at Glasgow University, and listens in on the role-play he uses to help health professionals, including Irene Wilson, Clinical Nurse Manager for the charity Ayrshire Cancer Support, train in CBT. Dr Raj Persaud discusses with Dr Jane Speedy Director of Centre for Narratives and Transformative Learning at Bristol University her reservations about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.