Once again Prudie recommends cognitive therapy and the Beck institute as though this is the only option for people seeking psychological treatment. Does she have some connection to the Beck institute? If she's simply as a fan of cognitive therapy, is she not aware that cognitive therapy is only one of several empirically supported therapies in the range of psychotherapy. Something's fishy.

Perhaps because cognitive therapy is relatively quick and is often what insurance companies are most willing to pay for is why she recommended it. As a counselor, I find it useful in many cases where things are reaching a breaking point. And this woman sounds as if she needs to get some coping skills asap; delving into why she feels she has to be perfect can wait until later, because frankly, it's not that important.

Can someone explain in simple terms what cognitive therapy is?

It is a form of therapy that helps you train your self to think positively and turn negative reactions around into positive ones. It basically works to change your thinking patterns allowing you to then focus on deeper issues. It is good for providing coping skills and stress relief (in my personal experience).

My guess is because it sounds like the woman has control/coping issues beyond PPD. A good cognitive therapist will advise medication if the situation warrants it - at least that's been my experience. The last two times I've started therapy, after the first visit my therapist asked if he could call my GP and have him write an antidepressant prescription.

Try this example - you have been given a big project at work and it is overwhelming you. You start thinking "I'll never get this done!" "I'm going to be fired when I don't get this done!" "My children will starve and we will all be homeless because I can't get this done!"

When you look at it in black and white it is obvious 1) that this type of thinking certainly isn't going to help the job get done and 2) that it really probably isn't even true. So cognitive therapy helps you to see that you really are getting way to worked up over nothing and tries to give you a path that will help you get to solution without taking this walk down hysteria lane.

Personally when I tried it, my therapist's answer tended to be 'just stop thinking that way' which I found to be very unhelpful. But I think that was more of a bad therapist than a bad therapy treatment.

My sense was that this woman's issues- perfectionism and the related depression, are right up the alley of a cognitive behavioral therapist. Althought I think she also may need some medication.

That said, I'm not a doctor, I only play one on the internet.

I will also add that cognitive therapy has the most rigorous scientific research behind it, which is why insurance companies prefer it. While other therapies have been shown to work too, the cognitive behavioral model is particularly amenable to rigorous scientific research, and therefore has been studied the most. It's a very popular and generally effective treatment, with success rates rivaling medication. In fact, a combo of medication and Cogntive behavioral therapy has been shown to be the most effective treatment for many disorders, particularly anxiety and depressive disorders.