Dear Delegates

It gives me great pleasure to invite you to 8th Asian Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Congress being organized by Indian Association of CBT and Department of Psychiatry of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) from 28th February to 2nd March 2024 in New Delhi, India. The best part of this academic forum is the theme that focuses on Cognitive Behavioural Therapies for Health & Illness: Advances, Challenges & Way forward. Since CBT has scientific evidence for both physical and mental illnesses, the scientific deliberations around this theme are important and necessary especially in Asian context where majority of countries have low resource healthcare settings. Again, as Asia is highly vulnerable to all kinds of adverse life events, dedicating a full day (Asian Trauma Conclave on Day-I of this Congress) on applicability of CBT to ameliorate the effects of such events will be definitely beneficial. There are also many interesting theme-based pre-congress workshops from which all professionals will benefit immensely. Invited talks, Keynote lectures, Symposia, Scientific papers, Theme-based Debate, Poem and Art based presentations, Master classes are some other academic attractions. More importantly, education and supervised training in CBT also vary significantly in Asia and cooperation in building a trained CBT workforce can have significant contributions to this region.

For many this Congress represents an excellent opportunity to re-emerge, re-establish old links, forge new ones and re-energize in confronting these challenges. I look forward to seeing you all in New Delhi and keenly anticipate your active contributions to enrich the experience of Asian CBT Congress. Moreover, New Delhi as a vibrant city is famous for its cuisine, historical places of visits, shopping, arts, and museums. It becomes more attractive with trips to Agra and Jaipur.

I welcome all professionals to share their clinical and research experience during this Asian CBT held at New Delhi, under the aegis of IACBT, ACBTA, and WCCBT. Young scientists are particularly encouraged to participate to learn from the global and Asian experts in this field and show their passion to excel in the field of CBT for better health in Asian countries.


Prof. Rakesh Kumar Chadda
HOD, Department of Psychiatry and Chief of NDDTC, AIIMS, New Delhi, India
Secretary General, World Association of Social Psychiatry (WASP)