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Clients take an active part in therapy and carry out
“homework” between sessions. They will often be asked to
keep a diary of their thoughts, feelings and behaviours in the situations
that they find stressful, which is then discussed in detail with the
therapist.
Tasks are set to test rules and assumptions that might be maintaining
the problems or difficulties. Initially homework tasks will involve
finding out information about problems, for example reading an information
leaflet on depression or anxiety.
The foundations of this form of psychotherapy is the relationship between
the therapist and the patient, with the therapist treating your difficulties
with understanding and sensitivity. Your therapist will be appropriately
warm to your emotional needs. Also, the therapist will be non-judgemental,
accepting you as the person who is made up of all your experiences to
date.
Therapy focuses on the presenting problem that you want to deal with.
This means the therapist does not interpret your problems and you both
come to a collective understanding of the problems.
Initially your therapist helps you to set a list of your problem(s)
that you want to help with. Sometimes this will be a single difficulty
or complex mix of difficulties. Set alongside with your problem list
are some realistic goals that you would like to reach by the end of
therapy. Although set at the beginning of therapy targets are flexible
and constantly under review. Therapy is paced at your rate so as not
to move too fast or too slow.
Most patients meet with their therapist weekly to review previous homework
and to continue to set weekly tasks/experiments/homework/etc. Sessions
usually last between 45 minutes to 1 hour.
The therapist can be seen as a guide who has experience and training
in dealing with emotional problems. As such, the therapist will help
you to arrive at a plan for you to overcome your difficulty. The emphasis
is on finding solutions, so that every patient becomes their own therapist,
learning to apply new skills and techniques to old patterns of thinking
and behaving.
Most therapy lasts for 12-18 sessions so ‘becoming your own therapist’
is an important part of CBT. You can then use these new skills to deal
effectively with future life problems independently of a health care
professional.
CBT is also driven by evidence based practice, to find out more click
here for the Evidence.
Both the therapist and the patient work together in a collaborative
relationship with an atmosphere of transparency. It is very helpful
in planning your therapy if you provide feedback to the therapist about
what is helping. With accurate feedback your therapist can tailor your
treatment to suit your needs.
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