Dr. Emma Scott
Clinical Psyhologist
CBT Therapy at the CBT Clinic London
What is CBT Therapy or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
CBT Therapy is a talking therapy that helps us to become aware of and change our “unhelpful thoughts and “unhelpful behaviours”. The CBT model says that it is our “unhelpful thoughts” that create our distressing and overwhelming emotions which often lead to negative behaviour and unwelcome physical changes in our bodies. So by changing the way we think and creating a kinder, balanced and more realistic thinking style, we can alleviate a large part of our own emotional distress and “problems”.
The CBT model also says that our “unhelpful behaviour patterns” cause us to then think in an “unhelpful way” which then causes all the difficulties and changes we have just mentioned.
So by recognising and changing our “unhelpful behaviour into more “helpful behaviour” we can reduce the difficulties we are unknowingly creating for ourselves.
For the CBT Therapy Model: see diagram below.
What is the primary focus of CBT Therapy?
CBT Therapy, unlike some of the other talking treatments, mainly focuses on the ‘here and now’ problems and difficulties. Instead of focusing on the causes of your distress or symptoms in the past, it looks for ways to improve your state of mind right now. If we do need to discuss past issues we only will do so in relation to how those events have affected your thinking and behaviour in the present day.
What Issues does CBT Therapy Help With?
CBT has been shown to help with many different types of problems. These include: Anxiety, Depression, Panic, Phobias (including Agoraphobia and Social Anxiety), Stress, Insomnia, Bulimia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Bipolar -Disorder and Psychosis.
CBT can also help if you have difficulties with Anger, a low opinion of yourself or physical health problems, like Pain or Chronic Fatigue.
How does CBT Therapy work?
CBT can help you to make sense of overwhelming problems by breaking them down into smaller parts. This makes it easier to see how they are connected and how they affect you. These parts are:
Situation – a problem, event or difficult situation.
From this can follow:
- Thoughts:
- Emotions
- Physical feelings
- Actions
We only use Evidence-Based Therapy
There is a great deal of research evidence to show that CBT therapy has worked effectively in treating a wide range of emotional and physical health conditions. This research has been carefully reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which provides independent, evidence based guidance for the NHS on the most effective ways to treat disease and ill health for the NHS. CBT therapy is recommended by NICE as the first line treatment for many conditions.
