Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) proposes to change unhelpful or negative aspects of people’s thoughts, feelings and resulting behaviour. The emotion-based thoughts are often expressions of a person’s self-doubt and fear or negative expectations about people he or she is interacting with.
The goal of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is also to help a person recognise that the negative thoughts he or she may be experiencing are not supported by evidence. Thus, this approach helps people to identify negative thought patterns, question their validity and then find more helpful ways of thinking.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has been shown to be useful in addressing:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Relationship issues
It involves:
- Identifying the problem that the individual seeking treatment wishes to understand and overcome.
- Exploring more deeply the thoughts, feelings, beliefs and attitudes that arise for the person when in situations that are challenging for him or her.
- Recognising which of these thoughts are not only detrimental but also inaccurate.
- Finding ways of challenging or questioning these unhelfpul thinking patterns.
- Working with a therapist to change the habitual ways of responding and evolve more beneficial coping strategies.
This approach is not necessarily the best option for everybody. If you would like to find out if Cognitive Behavioural Therapy might be the right treatment for you, contact Sophie.