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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a way of helping
people to cope with stress and emotional problems. It helps us to look
at the connections between how we think, how we feel and how we behave.
It particularly concentrates on ideas that are unrealistic. These often
undermine our self-confidence and make us feel depressed or anxious.
Looking at these unrealistic ideas can help us work out different ways
of thinking and behaving that in turn will help us cope better. Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy looks at the “here and now” issues rather
than focusing on things from the past. It helps people to learn new
methods of coping and problem-solving, which they can use for the rest
of their lives.
What makes Cognitive Behavioural Therapy stand out from other forms
of psychotherapy or types of counselling is the emphasis on evidence
based practice and you can read more about this here - Evidence
for CBT. To the patient this means that they are receiving up-to-date
professional psychological therapy based on the very latest research.
Over the years the evidence for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has grown
that has made it clear what problems it can help with.
The practice of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a craft. It is constantly
integrating the art of psychotherapy with the science of best practice.
CBT has two main driving assumptions:
• Firstly it is the assumption about thinking (cognitions).
• It is not what happens to you but what you make of that
experience that matters.
For example here is an exercise you might like
to try to explain this:
• The secondary assumptions are about how we behave or act in
a situation.
• What you do or how you act effects what you think and
how you feel.
Here is another exercise you might like to
try to explain this.
Although it is not a dominant part of therapy it’s
sometimes useful to look at how or why the problem developed. In fact
it is usually very important to understand how problems have developed
to help come up with solutions – but sometimes insight is not
enough. For example, if you broke your leg and went to hospital you
might expect the doctor to fix your leg and stop the pain rather than
ask you questions about how you broke it. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
is similar, the focus is on the solution of the problem, but a bit later
into the therapy it might be important to find out how you broke your
leg to prevent you from doing it again.
In Cognitive Behavioural Therapy we try to understand how the problems
are maintained. This could be because of:
• Unhelpful Behaviours (e.g. avoidance or substance use);
• Thinking distortions (like catastrophising or always looking
at the worst part of an experience).
• Negative emotional states (like hopelessness, shame or guilt).
• Physical symptoms (such as lack of energy or palpitations).
• Life events (such as consequences from assaults or redundancy).
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy offers specific interventions or techniques
to help overcome the difficulties in all the above areas.
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