You may have come across Cognitive Behavioural Therapy through the media, through your course of study or been recommended CBT by your GP. It is a highly effective treatment for conditions where anxiety or depression is the main issue and has a strong evidence base.

 

CBT is a time-limited therapy for a wide range of psychological problems including stress, anxiety, panic, phobias and depression. In CBT we are interested in your view of yourself, other people and the world around you. We are also interested in how your thoughts affect how you feel, what you do and any consequent physical effects. The focus in CBT is on the ‘here and now’ and how your problems are being maintained.

 

At our first meeting we will talk over what is bothering you and you will be asked to fill out a few brief questionnaires to help in the assessment of your current difficulties, so that we can have a shared understanding of how they are impacting on you. We will work together collaboratively to agree a plan for your therapy, in-between session activities and the goals you wish to achieve. We will also discuss the time, date, frequency and number of sessions you may need.

 

An important feature of CBT is that the sessions are clearly structured. Together we will agree an agenda at the beginning of each session. This will include a review of your previous session, your in-between session work (see below) and one or two current problems, as well as looking at the changes you wish to focus on for the following week. Each session will include a brief review of what was covered in the session. This will help us to monitor progress to see what is working well and what might need to be done differently. Sometimes we might recommend a book or a computer-based CBT programme in order to help your progress in finding new ways of thinking and behaving.

 

In CBT you test out what you learn in therapy between your sessions. Research shows that those who carry out these tasks get better faster and stay better longer. Some examples of these tasks might be keeping track of your mood, challenging negative thoughts, doing something differently and recording what happened. Together we will discuss and agree on the work you will do between sessions and we will discuss the results or findings in the following session.

 

As you can see, CBT requires commitment and an agreement to work actively with your therapist to achieve your goals. This is only one of many approaches the service can offer and if it is not right for you then we can discuss other options.

 

British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies www.babcp.com