Colin Matthews: Chartered Psychologist

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) might be regarded as a reasonably recent addition to the 400 or so recognised psychotherapies. Established by Aaron Beck in the 1960s as an extension to the behaviourist therapies, this therapy considers the impact of thoughts and behaviours on the way that we feel. A CBT therapist will work with clients using quite specific interventions and ideas to help them challenge the way that they think and behave.

How might CBT help me ?

CBT has established itself as a diagnostic therapy, i.e. a therapy that seeks to 'cure' an 'illness' such as depression or anxiety. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have suggested that it is effective for a range of 'mental health problems' such as OCD and Depression. Practitioners are asked to consider it as the therapy of choice for those problems by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Unless the client specifically requests this therapy, Colin would generally only offer CBT where a client has a specific diagnosis such as Depression, PTSD or an anxiety condition such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Vomit Phobia or Panic Disorder.

How do I know my therapist is qualified in CBT ?

You should ask your therapist what experience they have in CBT and what training they have undergone. Generally CBT therapists will be accredited members of one of the following professional bodies:

What should I expect from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy ?

At your first session, your therapist will gather information about the issues you want help with. They will also want to hear something about your history such that they can help you understand how your current difficulties may have come about. By the end of this session, you should have agreed with your therapist a formulation of your current difficulties, realistic goals for the therapy, an outline plan on how these goals are to be achieved, the likely duration of the therapy and the frequency of the sessions. It is likely that your therapist will set you some homework to do at the end of this session.

In subsequent sessions, you and your therapist will work towards the goals you established in your first session, using your outline plan. This plan will include specific tasks that you will need to do both inside and outside of the therapy sessions in order to achieve your goals. These tasks will be introduced at timely points during the therapy and are subject to negotiation between you and your therapist. Therapy sessions will be used to monitor how these tasks are going, how your plan is proceeding and to agree new tasks as necessary.

The therapy will continue in this way until your goals have been achieved.

The Mental Health Charity, MIND provide further infomation about CBT on their website. To follow this link, please click here