What is CBT?
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave. It's most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but can be useful for other mental and physical health problems.
CBT is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can trap you in a vicious cycle. CBT aims to help you deal with overwhelming problems in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts.You're shown how to change these negative patterns to improve the way you feel.Unlike some other talking treatments, CBT deals with your current problems, rather than focusing on issues from your past. It looks for practical ways to improve your state of mind on a daily basis.
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CBT works by helping noticing these thinking and behaviour patterns, you and the therapist views these thoughts as thinking habits and not facts and together you test these thoughts out by trying out new behaviours to find out if these thoughts are helpful or not. This requires active and collaborative ways of working with your therapist and requires a lot of the 'work' to take place outside of the therapy session to gain the benefits of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
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CBT tends to be a short term therapy and often people can start to see benefits in a few weeks.
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