Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

WHAT IS COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY (CBT)?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is the term used to describe a psychological process used to treat an Anxiety Disorder or Mood Disorder.

It is believed that thoughts, ideas and beliefs can trigger some health problems, particularly psychological ones. The aim of CBT is to spot ‘problem’ thoughts and find new ways of thinking about them which steer clear of these harmful ideas. CBT can also help with some physical problems such as fatigue.

HOW DOES CBT WORK?

CBT breaks thoughts down into smaller parts to make them more manageable. These parts are:

• situation;
• thought;
• emotion;
• physical feeling; and
• action.

CBT works on the basis that how you think or feel about each of these parts will affect each other part. Therefore, to find a more positive way of thinking about the whole problem you need to find more positive ways of thinking about the different parts of it.

The resulting aim of CBT is that individuals will eventually be able to break down situations themselves by tackling negative or unhelpful thoughts and feelings and therefore improving the way that they think about situations.

CBT can be done in groups or individually. In fact, the NHS has now approved two computer programmes for people to conduct CBT themselves: Fear Fighter for Anxiety Disorders and Beating the Blues for Mood Disorders.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS CBT?

CBT is one of the most effective treatments for psychological health problems. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, CBT is as effective as antidepressants for many types of depression. 

However, CBT is not a quick fix; it takes time to adjust thought patterns, for example, with individual CBT, a person will probably meet with a therapist for up to 20 sessions.

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