There are many types of therapies carried out by mental health professionals. These are also called frameworks or modalities, but what is important is that each is an evidenced – that is, researched and proven – method of treating someone with mental health difficulties. You should always ask your therapist if they’ve had training and practice in the therapy that you’ll be engaging in.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, also known as CBT, is one of the most widely-known and has good evidence for all sorts of difficulties including trauma, depression, and anxiety disorders. It can also be used for difficulties in the workplace, within relationships, for people with low motivation, and for so much more.
At its core, CBT focuses on resolving two types of difficulties:
1. Vicious cycles in the present that keep us stuck in unwanted behaviours and thought pattens
2. Long-held beliefs from the past that continue to hang over us and affect how we live today
1. Vicious Cycles
Four things that we all experience can interact with each other and result in vicious cycles:
THOUGHTS EMOTIONS BODILY SENSATIONS BEHAVIOURS
For example, if I’m feeling anxious about a presentation, I might worry that I’m going to be fired, which makes me tense, which then ‘tells me’ that I’ll do a bad job, so I experience nausea and avoid going to work. Or if I feel bored, my body might become lethargic and I believe that I don’t have the energy to go out so I stay in bed. Thoughts, our emotions, our physiology and our behaviours all affect one another, fusing into vicious cycles that we can become trapped in.
2. Core Beliefs, Traumas and Fears
Where do these vicious cycles come from? They might have begun following a traumatic experience or after an earlier period of rejection, neglect, or misapprehension about the world. Then we ‘see’ the world through this, usually unflattering, lens.
CBT Therapy*
Clinical Psychologists (and other therapists) trained in CBT can help you understand where these long-held unhelpful beliefs come from, whilst offering you strategies to break the vicious cycles, for example:
THOUGHTS – Can be resolved by thought-challenging exercises and trying out experiments to test whether the beliefs we have about ourselves are realistic or not.
EMOTIONS – CBT can explore why we feel unwanted emotions, such as fear, anger and sadness, and can help to normalise them and reduce their severity.
BODY – Relaxation exercises are one of the many techniques that can help us to lower the stress felt in our bodies.
BEHAVIOURS – Difficult situations can be challenged, such as through exposure to your fear or discovering new ways to engage in the world that brings meaning and satisfaction.
Next Steps
Mental health difficulties should always be treated by a qualified therapist.
I have worked with lots of people using CBT for a range of difficulties, including phobias, trauma, depression, social anxiety, OCD, moral OCD, anger, misophonia, relationship difficulties, and sexual performance problems as well as many others.
Contact Me
I offer online therapy and would love to support you too. Please contact me here for more information.
Phil
Dr Phil Lurie
Clinical Psychologist
*I know. That’s a bit like saying ‘PIN Number’