Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy

Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy (CBT) is a type of treatment that aims to help you to identify and change the unhelpful thinking styles and behaviours that are often part of mental health problems. CBT has a proven effectiveness in treating anxiety/ depression and is recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). It is fully researched and extensively studied and found to be effective in treating a number of psychiatric disorders. Clients and therapists work together to identify and understand problems in terms of the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Therapy is usually offered as weekly or fortnightly sessions with a qualified or BABCP accredited CBT practitioner. It is largely therapist assisted self-help with the aim of helping you to overcome current problems and similar ones that may happen in future.

The approach usually focuses on difficulties in the here and now, and relies on the therapist and client developing a shared view of the individual's problem. This then leads to identification of personalized, usually time-limited, therapy goals and strategies which are continually monitored and evaluated. The treatments are inherently empowering in nature, the outcome being to focus on specific psychological and practical skills (e.g. in reflecting on and exploring the meaning attributed to events / situations and re-evaluation of those meanings) aimed at enabling the client to tackle their problems by harnessing their own resources. Therapy is collaborative, with active participation between the client and the therapist who work together to make sense of the problem and to acquire skills to overcome target problems.

The acquisition and utilization of such skills is seen as the main goal, and the active component in promoting change, with an emphasis on putting what has been learned into practice between sessions ("homework"). Homework is used because the main part of therapy occurs in everyday life i.e. the client puts into practice what has been agreed in session. Thus, the overall aim is for the individual to attribute improvement in their problems to their own efforts, in collaboration with the psychotherapist. Cognitive and/or behavioural psychotherapists work with individuals, families and groups. The approaches can be used to help anyone irrespective of ability, culture, race, gender or sexual preference. Cognitive and/or behavioural psychotherapies can be used on their own or in conjunction with medication, depending on the severity or nature of each client's problem.