There are three methods of cognitive therapy: Collaborative empiricism, guided discovery and Socratic questioning. And essence of each of these three methods is the same. Cognitive therapy, one way of treating bipolar disorder, tries to help the client overcome difficulties by making the patients realize and changing their dysfunctional thinking, behavior, and emotional responses.

Using cognitive therapy to treat bipolar disorder involves helping clients develop skills to modify beliefs, identify distorted thinking, and change behaviors. Treatment is carried on between client and therapist and on testing beliefs. Therapy may consist of testing the assumptions which one makes and identifying how certain of one’s usually-unquestioned thoughts are distorted, unrealistic and unhelpful. Once those thoughts have been challenged, one’s feelings about the subject matter of those thoughts are more easily subject to change.

The following example may make the usage of treating bipolar disorder by cognitive therapy clear. When doing something wrong, a person may think, “I’m a fool and I can not do anything right.” If this depression moves on, he may eventually unwilling to join in activities and isolate himself. By magnifying his negative thought and minimizing his positive thought, an adaptive response and further constructive consequence becomes unlikely, which reinforces the original belief of being “useless.”. In therapy, the therapist and client would collaborate, directing at helping the client realize his distorted thinking and helping him think in a more positive way and ultimately changing his thought and overcoming depression.