What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy or CBT?
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy which in basic terms can help you manage your problems by adapting the way you think and behave. This is a process done collaboratively with your therapist, working together to discover what works well for you.
It is an approach often used to treat anxiety and depression, but can also be helpful for other mental and physical health problems, for example:
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy has many other applications and is a recommended therapy by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for many issues (Search specific NICE Clinical Guidelines here).
CBT cannot remove your problems or experiences, but it can help you deal with them in a more positive way. It is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and can sometimes trap you in a vicious cycle.
CBT aims to help you break this cycle. By learning to recognise feelings, understand overwhelming thoughts and unhelpful behaviours CBT can help you develop helpful coping and make positive changes to improve the way you feel.
CBT deals with your current problems and helps you to find ways to improve your state of mind on a day-to-day basis. However, while it may not be necessary to focus on issues from your past, it may sometimes be useful to discuss past issues and understand their relationship to your current problem.
If required it may be suggested to continue developing your CBT further using "Schema Therapy" which would entail looking at similar patterns discovered during CBT but involving more in depth cognitive (thinking) processes linked to a persons beliefs about themselves, the world and others. This can be particularly helpful for problems that have been ongoing for some time.
An important aspect of therapy which your Therapist will discuss with you is relapse prevention. It is hoped you will feel armed with the tools to cope with issues more effectively in the future.
It is an approach often used to treat anxiety and depression, but can also be helpful for other mental and physical health problems, for example:
- Panic disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Phobias
- Eating disorders
- Sleep problems
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy has many other applications and is a recommended therapy by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for many issues (Search specific NICE Clinical Guidelines here).
CBT cannot remove your problems or experiences, but it can help you deal with them in a more positive way. It is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and can sometimes trap you in a vicious cycle.
CBT aims to help you break this cycle. By learning to recognise feelings, understand overwhelming thoughts and unhelpful behaviours CBT can help you develop helpful coping and make positive changes to improve the way you feel.
CBT deals with your current problems and helps you to find ways to improve your state of mind on a day-to-day basis. However, while it may not be necessary to focus on issues from your past, it may sometimes be useful to discuss past issues and understand their relationship to your current problem.
If required it may be suggested to continue developing your CBT further using "Schema Therapy" which would entail looking at similar patterns discovered during CBT but involving more in depth cognitive (thinking) processes linked to a persons beliefs about themselves, the world and others. This can be particularly helpful for problems that have been ongoing for some time.
An important aspect of therapy which your Therapist will discuss with you is relapse prevention. It is hoped you will feel armed with the tools to cope with issues more effectively in the future.