CBT
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
CBT starts from a simple observation: what you think, how you feel, and what you do are not separate events.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is structured and focused on the present. Rather than tracing everything back to its origin, it looks at what is keeping a pattern running now. A thought turns up, it lands as a feeling, the feeling makes a particular action look necessary, and the action quietly confirms the original thought. CBT works on that loop where it is easiest to reach.
It tends to be the most concrete of the approaches I use. We name the pattern, look at the evidence for the belief underneath it, and test what happens when you respond differently. Some of that work happens in session and some of it happens in your week, which is where the pattern actually lives.
What this can look like
- Catching the thought that arrived just before the feeling did
- Writing out a situation and separating what happened from what you concluded
- Checking a prediction against what actually tends to occur
- Trying a different response on purpose and seeing what follows
- Noticing the rules you are holding yourself to that you never agreed to
Is it for you
Who this tends to suit
CBT often suits people who like structure and want something to do between sessions. If you think in patterns, or you have found it useful to see a problem written down and taken apart, it will probably feel like a natural fit.
It suits some people less well. If the difficulty is less about a specific pattern and more about not knowing what you feel in the first place, starting somewhere with more room to explore usually works better. We can tell fairly quickly, and changing course is normal rather than a setback.
Also drawn from
Other approaches
These are not alternatives you have to choose between. Most of the work borrows from more than one.
ACT
Making room for difficult thoughts rather than fighting them, so your choices can follow what matters to you.
ERP
Approaching what sets the anxiety off, gradually and by agreement, without the compulsion that usually follows it.
DBT
Practical skills for riding out intense emotion without acting on it, and for holding two true things at once.
Mindfulness-based therapy
Noticing what is happening while it is happening, instead of only recognising it afterwards.
Ready to take the first step?
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