| Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) CBT is a talking therapy. It can help people who are experiencing a wide range of mental health difficulties. What people think can affect how they feel and how they behave. This is the basis of CBT. During times of mental distress, people think differently about themselves and what happens to them. Thoughts can become negative and unhelpful. This can worsen how a person feels. They may then behave in a way that prolongs their distress. CBT practitioners help each person identify and change their thinking styles and unhelpful behavior. In doing this, the result is often a major improvement in how a person feels and lives. Does it work? Research over the last thirty years has shown CBT to be as effective as medication for reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, fears, obsessions, and some health problems. It is usually more effective than medication in enabling people to stay healthy afterwards. Therapy helps people become aware of and then adapt their thoughts and behaviors that can lie at the root of their problems. The overall aim is to help people to develop skills in managing their problems – in effect, to become their own therapist. What’s the difference between CBT and counselling? Good CBT provides the same empathic and supportive relationship that is found in counselling. However, CBT will usually have a more obvious structure and, has a stronger record of effectiveness for many of the problems people experience. In addition, the Health Service’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) particularly recommends CBT as the treatment of choice for a range of different problems. It is important to recognize that some problems will be more suited to counselling than CBT. In addition, some people will find one style of working more comfortable than another. Everyone is different. Your therapist will work with you to find the way of working that feels best for you. What does it involve? People meet with their therapist to develop an understanding of their problems. This is a shared knowledge. CBT encourages an equal relationship between therapist and client. You’re the expert on you. What the therapist brings is knowledge of how different problems get established and maintained and how you can begin to make changes. CBT focuses on current difficulties. Although it is possible that earlier experiences may have shaped the way you currently think and feel about a situation, the aim of CBT is to understand how this is having an effect now. People will sometimes come to therapy because they feel stuck with no way out of their difficulties. CBT can offer a way to resolve these problems or find ways of managing the situations with less pain and struggle. When problems have become entrenched, new ways of thinking and behaving need to be practiced. Between-session activities are planned to help people test out their assumptions and develop confidence in new ways of handling their situations. CBT, as practised by us, offers a safe, confidential and friendly approach to therapy. |