Intro
CBT is an effective type of psychological therapy used to treat a range of common mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. This type of therapy works to help you manage different situations or problems by changing your responses to unhelpful thoughts and changing behaviour that isn’t helpful to you. Your therapist works with you to reach an understanding of the origins of the difficulty. The focus of treatment tends to quickly move to what is maintaining the problem. The aim is to break this maintenance cycle in the pursuit of your personally chosen goals. In this way CBT is an active change focused type of therapy. It teaches new effective coping strategies to help you deal better with difficulties even after your therapy has finished.
How CBT Works
CBT is interested in the connection between thoughts (cognitions), feelings and behaviours as they relate to your problems. CBT recognises that unhelpful thoughts, feelings & behaviours can trap you in a vicious cycle.
CBT helps you to deal with overwhelming problems more positively and realistically by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable parts. Your therapist will work closely with you to help you change unhelpful patterns to improve the way you feel and help you to cope with difficult situations.
CBT helps you to identify the origin of the problem in the initial sessions. Rather than focusing on your past, CBT deals with how the problem impacts you now and teaches you new skills that you can apply to your everyday life. The overall aim of CBT is to keep using the new skills you learn in order to prevent your problems from having a negative impact on your life, especially after you have completed treatment.
What We Offer
We apply CBT treatments to problems related to anxiety & depression including;
– Stress
– Sleep Problems
– Health Anxiety
– Phobias
– Panic
– Body Image Issues
– Relationship Issues
– Social Anxiety
– Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
– Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
– And More…
You may not be sure if your particular difficulty is suited to CBT. In this case a therapist will be happy to schedule a telephone consultation with you. The initial sessions tend to incorporate information gathering or assessment and this assessment is a two way experience. Your therapist will explain how CBT understands your difficulty and you decide if the approach makes sense to you. Treatment involves ‘between session assignments’ sometimes called homework. This is a practice exercise to apply what you have learned from the session to real life situations. The important bit to this aspect of CBT is on your reflection and joint review of learning from the task rather than getting it right or wrong.