behavior therapy

American  

noun

Psychology.

1. a form of therapy emphasizing the correction of a person's undesirable behavior through Pavlovian conditioning, aversive therapy, or similar learning techniques.

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Etymology

Origin of behavior therapy

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

For the past three years, she’s been home with her twin daughters as they went through intensive behavior therapy for autism.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 8, 2025

For two weeks, she participated in dialectical behavior therapy, a form of talk therapy in which patients learn and practice skills, such as mindfulness, to manage intense feelings.

From Slate • Sep. 15, 2025

A signpost with six arrows on it sent users to different activities, each based on methods shown to improve mental health, such as dialectical behavior therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction.

From Science Daily • May 1, 2024

The program centers on dialectical behavior therapy, or D.B.T., which was developed over the past five decades by a psychologist named Marsha Linehan, who was suicidal herself.

From New York Times • May 17, 2023

Beck’s work, along with that of Albert Ellis, a psychologist working independently, provided the architecture for what is known as cognitive behavior therapy, or CBT.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 5, 2021