What is CBT?
What is CBT
(Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)?
CBT is a talking therapy designed to help you think about yourself, the world & other people, by examining how and what you do affects your thoughts and feelings.
CBT can help you to change how you think (Cognitive) and what you do (Behaviour) it focuses on the problems and difficulties in the here and now and looks for ways to improve your state of mind now.
How CBT works
CBT can help you make sense of overwhelming problems by breaking them down into component parts which are connected and enable you to look at how they can affect you.
A typical example might be; As you walk down the road, you see someone you know who seemingly appears to ignore you.
This situation starts a cascade of worry.
Thoughts- He/She ignored me-they don’t like me
Feeling- Low-rejected and sad
Physical- Stomach cramps-muscle tension-low energy
Behaviour- Go home and ignore and avoid them
The thoughts from that example has led to a number of uncomfortable feelings and behaviour which can make you feel worse.
CBT can help you break this vicious cycle by making you aware of the unhelpful thinking styles and give you the tools to challenge and alter your thinking, feelings and behaviours and so change the way they work.
My approach to working with clients is collaborative, non-judgemental and client centred. By working together its often possible to break each problem down into separate parts. To capture this information I often encourage clients to keep a diary. This can help to identify individual patterns of thoughts, emotions and behaviour and together we can work out if they are unrealistic, or unhelpful and how they affect each other and you!
At this stage we can begin to work on how to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviour and work out how to practice putting change in to affect which is often in the form of homework which will be discussed and agreed and reviewed at each session.
CBT aims for the client to get to the point where they are able to use their tools to be able to challenge themselves and help themselves independently by the end of treatment.
What does CBT Involve
Once we have agreed your appointment’s we will meet for a number of sessions this is usually between 6 and 20 sessions on a weekly or fortnightly basis the first one to two sessions will be to check if CBT will be helpful for you and will involve asking about your past life and back ground to understand how your past may affect you now.
CBT is client led which means that you decide what you want to deal with in the short, medium, long term.
Its important to say CBT doesn’t work for everyone. However, by the end of treatment many people are able to recognise their unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours and recognise how to manage challenging situations and cope with them in more helpful and positive ways by continuing to use the strategies’ that hey have found most helpful and successful for them. In affect they have become their own therapist!
