Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is the type of therapy most often provided by the NHS as it is well evidenced and is more ‘measurable’ than other forms of counselling.
CBT is based on the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour and therefore becoming aware of our thoughts is at the core. We would look at your thoughts, look for ‘thinking errors’ and look for alternative ways of viewing the same triggering event.
If human emotions largely result from thinking, then one may appreciably control one’s feelings by controlling one’s thoughts – or by changing the internalised sentences, or self-talk, with which one largely created the feeling in the first place.
Albert Ellis
CBT is extremely useful for conditions such as anxiety (including OCD and health anxiety) but there are those that feel criticised by this type of therapy. I have heard people say that CBT suggests that the way we feel is wrong or faulty. As you can see from elsewhere on this website, it would not fit with my core value of self-acceptance (for all) if it was. It is more about looking at what thoughts would be more helpful in order to get the feelings and behaviours you want.
Another aspect of CBT that is proven for anxiety is gradual exposure. This means breaking down our fears and exposing ourselves to them in gradual baby steps. Learning relaxation techniques is also helpful and, as a qualified hypnotherapist, I can also use hypnotherapy if you wanted.
This post is one in a series I’ve wrtten on key counselling therapies. Other posts in the series include Person Centred, ACT and Psychodynamic. Together these make up the set of therapies I tend to use over the course of the counselling relationship.