Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a non-profit organization founded in 1994 as an outgrowth of Dr. Aaron T. Beck’s original Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Today Beck Institute is an international training and resource center for health and mental health professionals, educators, and students worldwide. In addition to offering training programs at our Philadelphia location, we help create or improve cognitive behavior therapy programs at universities, hospitals, community mental health centers, health systems, and other institutions.

Beck Institute also provides clinical mental health services and consultations and promotes research in the field.
Beck Institute serves:

Healthcare professionals and students
Patients/consumers
Active-duty and veteran military members
Other organizations

History of Beck Institute

Dr. Beck developed Cognitive Therapy (CT), also known as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) in the 1960s. The original Center for Cognitive Therapy at Penn served as an important training ground for cognitive behavior therapists. Still, Dr. Beck and his daughter, Dr. Judith Beck, had long wished to establish a new clinical setting that would provide state-of-the-art psychotherapy and training opportunities for professionals worldwide and at all levels. In 1994, they established the Beck Institute at its present site in Bala Cynwyd, in suburban Philadelphia.
Beck Institute’s Influence

In recognition of Dr. Beck’s scholarship and therapeutic model, the international psychotherapeutic community has acknowledged his expertise in the field of mental health. In fact, Centers for Cognitive Therapy have been established all over the world by clinicians, researchers, and academics who trained at the original center in Philadelphia or at Beck Institute.

For more information, please visit www.beckinstitute.org