What is CBT? Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an extensively studied treatment approach for a wide range of issues, such as anxiety, panic, and depression. CBT is an evidence based treatment – that means, it has proven to be effective more often than many other types of therapy.
CBT says: What we think can influence how we feel and how we act.
In counselling sessions provided by a CBT therapist, you begin the process of changing your negative thoughts (we call them negative automatic thoughts) and reframing them into more adaptive ways of thinking. You then learn about the emotions associated with your thoughts, and identify and modify the behavioural outcome as a result.
CBT works by changing attitudes and behaviours by helping you focus on these thoughts and personal beliefs that are holding you back. Emotions play a role in here, too – the emotional outcomes tied to the thought process also influence what we do. This kind of therapy addresses the meaning we assign to our problems, and it looks at how beliefs have developed over time.
