Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of talking treatment which focuses on how your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect your feelings and behaviour, and teaches you coping skills for dealing with different problems. It combines cognitive therapy (examining the things you think) that are activated (triggered) by irrational thoughts and behaviour therapy (examining the things you do) that are used as helpful or unhelpful coping strategies.

CBT focuses on the problems and difficulties you have now, rather than issues from your past and by talking about these things, CBT can help you to change how you think (‘cognitive’) and what you do (‘behaviour’) to reduce emotional disturbance and prevent future disturbances and progress to achieving improved health and wellbeing. To create change it’s about having an understanding that the changing process involves more than just feeling better but more the process of ‘getting better’ by putting things into action and ‘staying better’ by continuing doing the tasks to reinforce new learning. Feeling better is usually short lived while getting better is long-lasting.