The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy

Dr. Robert Leahy

Robert L. Leahy (B.A., M.S., Ph.D., Yale University), Director, completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Medical School under the direction of Dr. Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy. Dr. Leahy is the Past-President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Past-President of the International Association of Cognitive Psychotherapy, Past-President of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, Director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy (NYC), and Clinical Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Weill-Cornell University Medical School. He has received the Aaron T. Beck award for outstanding contributions in cognitive therapy. He was Associate Editor of The Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy (serving as Editor 1998-2003) and is currently Editor of Cognitive Behavior Therapy Book Reviews. Dr. Leahy is now Associate Editor of The International Journal of Cognitive Therapy. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill. Dr. Leahy serves on a number of scientific committees for international conferences on cognitive behavioral therapy and is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop leader at conferences and universities throughout the world. For a listing of professional presentations click here.

He is author and editor of seventeen books, including Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders (with Holland), Overcoming Resistance in Cognitive Therapy, Bipolar Disorder: A Cognitive Therapy Approach (with Newman, Beck, Reilly-Harrington, & Gyulai), Cognitive Therapy Techniques, Roadblocks in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Psychological Treatments of Bipolar Disorder (ed. with Johnson), Contemporary Cognitive Therapy, The Therapeutic Relationship in the Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapies (ed. with Gilbert) and The Worry Cure which received critical praise from the New York Times and has been selected by Self Magazine as one of the top eight self-help books of all time. His books have been translated into eleven languages and are used throughout the world in training cognitive behavioral therapists. His book The Worry Cure has been translated into nine languages and is a selection of the Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild and numerous other book clubs. Eleven of his clinical books have been book club selections. His book, Anxiety-Free: Unravel Your Fears before They Unravel You, will be published in April 2009.

He has been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek, Psychology Today, Washington Post, Redbook, Shape, First for Women, Women's Health, Self Magazine, USA Today Magazine and many other magazines and newspapers worldwide and he has appeared on national and local radio and on television (20/20, Good Morning America, and The Early Show).

For information on media coverage of Dr. Leahy's work please click here. To hear a podcast by Dr. Leahy on worry, click here. To read Dr. Leahy's Anxiety Blog on Psychology Today, click here. He is currently working on several books for clinicians on anxiety, depression, emotional processing, and personality disorders and he is completing a new popular audience book on depression.