Therapy: CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a form of talking therapy that aims to help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.

It's most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but can be very useful for other difficulties too.

CBT differs from many other psychotherapies because it is highly structured and focused as well as pragmatic and solution focused (helps you to identify specific issues and ways to solve them). It is also focused on here and now and your current difficulties (it is therefore not concerned with attempting to resolve past issues). CBT is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are all closely interconnected, and that negative thoughts and difficult feelings can trap you in a vicious cycle. CBT aims to help you deal with overwhelming problems in a more helpful and constructive way by breaking them down into smaller parts. CBT will seek to help you recognize distortions in thinking that are creating problems, and then to re-evaluate them in light of reality. This approach will also help you to develop problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations.