Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?
CBT is an evidence-based strategy focused on identifying and changing negative thought patterns and behaviours. The core idea is that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are interconnected, and that changing one can lead to changes in the others.
CBT is usually the first approach for conditions like anxiety and depression. It is a practical, problem-solving approach, designed to empower you to develop skills you can use to manage your symptoms independently over time.
Triggers – What is out of our control?
A key part of CBT is recognising triggers, events, situations, or environments that provoke an emotional reaction. Triggers are usually out of our control. If we could control them, we could change them.
Triggers are by their nature something we are unable to change (e.g. - a sudden loss, change in circumstances, or daily stressors like work pressure and traffic jams). While we cannot alter these external factors, CBT teaches us to control our responses to them instead. By shifting focus from the trigger to our reaction, we can influence the impact these factors have on our emotional and psychological well-being.
Managing Physical Reactions and Distress
Often a trigger will cause a physical reaction. Stress often leads to physical symptoms like increased heart rate, muscle tension, and rapid breathing, while depression can cause fatigue, feeling of being weighed down, slow movements. Recognising and managing physical symptoms is a key part of preventing them from getting worse, and part of our strategy in how to help.
There are lots of personalised physical distress tolerance techniques (I’m certain you’ve been told to breathe at some point before!). Our key is to find the right physical distress tolerance techniques for you, and to fit your level of distress.
Challenging Unhelpful Thoughts
In CBT, thoughts play a central role. Often we understanding our unhelpful thinking patterns are contributing to our emotional distress, but we’re unable to “turn off” the thoughts. A critical part of CBT is identifying and challenging these unhelpful thoughts and picking out fears from the facts.
Unhelpful thoughts are often automatic and biased, leading to negative emotional states and behaviours. These can include cognitive distortions like overgeneralisation, catastrophising, or personalising situations. The first step in managing these thoughts is recognising them. Once identified, the next step is to challenge them by examining the evidence supporting these thoughts and considering alternative perspectives.
Understanding and Managing Emotions
Emotional identification is another crucial skill, but often not handled well in CBT. Here we often borrow from Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). It involves recognising and labelling nuanced emotions beyond basic feelings like happiness, sadness, or anger. This deeper understanding allows us to figure out what we are actually feeling. Is it anxiety? Or are we feeling something more complex like shame, or guilt?
Strategies
CBT provides you with a toolkit for recognising triggers, managing physical reactions, challenging unhelpful thoughts, understanding emotions, and addressing behaviours. CBT aims to not only addresses immediate distress but also promote long-term psychological resilience and well-being. The goal is to empower you to have a healthier, more balance life.
