This case report was a nursing experience that emphasizing the application of cognitive therapy to care a female depressive patient. During the four weeks of inpatient care, we found her nursing problems included ineffective coping, sleep disturbance, the negative change of comfortable conditions, and the potential risk of violence toward self. The core of the problems was related to her dysfunctional cognition. Therefore, in addition to general nursing intervention, we applied the Beck's cognitive model as a special nursing intervention to modify the case's cognitive thinking, and to improve her mood. The results showed that the three kinds of situations related to dysfunctional cognitive thinking were role performance, mental illness, and personal interaction. Among these situations, the case's negative prediction, overgeneralization, magnification and minimization, and emotional reasoning were presented the process of her automatically cognitive distortion. The beliefs of keeping responsibility, hoping to be loved, and social stigma with mental illness are the critical points. In the aspect of emotion, the outcome of the cognitive therapy showed that her role performance as a daughter improved most, while the self-concept related to disease improved the least. In the aspect of cognition, her role performance as worker improved most, while insomnia improved the least. Moreover, followed up her work conditions for two weeks by five phone calls after her discharge from the hospital, it showed that the case could cope appropriately and restored the ability to deal with the stress in the community as well. In this case report, we shared our nursing care experiences and provoked further suggestions focused on the application cognitive therapy for the patient with depression.