Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: A WellMinds PTS Guide

This article offers an insightful exploration into Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), a widely recognised form of talking therapy. We address how CBT assists individuals in understanding and managing emotions, particularly in relation to anxiety, stress, and low mood. The article delves into the dual aspects of CBT—cognitive and behaviour therapy—and their combined impact on emotional well-being. By breaking down complex problems into manageable parts, CBT empowers individuals with practical coping skills. This introduction to CBT is designed to inform you about its application in treating a variety of mental health issues, guiding you towards effective self-help strategies for your wellness journey.

What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT is a type of talking therapy. It is a common treatment for a range of mental health problems including low mood and different problems with feeling anxious and stressed.

CBT teaches you different ways to understand your emotions and learn coping skills for dealing with different problems. It focuses on how your thoughts and beliefs can affect your feelings and actions.

CBT combines two types of therapy to help you deal with these problematic thoughts and behaviours:

• Cognitive therapy which looks at the impact of your thoughts on how you feel.
• Behaviour therapy which looks at the impact of the things you do on how you feel.

What are CBT sessions like?

CBT is a structured therapy that looks at your life in the here and now. We often explore past issues but we do this in a way to understand how problems persist in your life at the moment. In sessions, we break big problems down into small manageable, understandable pieces so things don’t feel so overwhelming. Then we will work through exercises together to explore your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and how this might be keeping you feeling stuck. We will agree different tasks to complete in your own time so you can learn to be your own therapist and put your new skills into practice to see what effect they have on your mood difficulties. Then we will also spend time reflecting on what you are learning and what other areas we need to focus on to move you towards your therapy goals.

CBT is used to treat problems such as depression and low mood, problems with excessive worry about a range of problems including health, obsessive thoughts and behaviours, feelings of panic, trauma, issues with body image. These are just a few examples and not an exhaustive list. Please contact us for an assessment so we can explore if CBT would be suitable for the problems you are experiencing.