Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
Posted by Guest Writer on Wed, 10 Aug 2011.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is widely used to tackle problems such as anxiety, OCD and other behavioural problems. It can be used to help overcome stress, emotional problems and bad habits such as self harm.
You can gain access to cognitive behavioural therapy through CAMHS and can either meet your therapist on your own or with others such as a parent or carer. In your first session you will talk about why you’re there and what you want to achieve out of the sessions. You will aim to understand what has gone on, what is happening in your life and what you would like to change. Sometimes in the sessions your therapist may write down details so that they can be used in the future, but you can also say if you don’t want any notes taken during the sessions.
At the start of each session, you and your therapist will plan out what you want to be covered, talked about and achieved in that session, your therapist will take an interest in how your week has been, how your practice went and any other details that may be relevant in order to help deal with the problems or difficulties you face. As time goes on you will hopefully start to feel more in control of your life and much better, all of this progress will be recorded.
In cognitive behavioural therapy, there are stages you will go through in order to achieve positive outcomes with how you think and behave. In the first stage you and your therapist will identify and challenge any thinking that may be distorted, this will be discussed and then lead on to trying to self-talk in a balanced and more realistic way so that you’re thinking logically. After you will then be challenged to confront either objects or situations that you fear and cause you to then act in a certain way (such as running away from the situation), but instead of doing your usual routine of running off, your goal will be to face the situation head on and try to cope with any anxiety you may have, you will be challenged to be in difficult situations where your goal is to be able to deal with the anxiety you may face, as you practice being in that sort of uncomfortable position it will soon get easier and you will be able to have more control over your urges and actions.