My Approach

Making the decision to attend counselling is a positive step and can offer support beyond that available from family or friends. It offers a safe and confidential space where you can express your feelings and gain deeper insight into your difficulties. That confidential space means that you can talk about things you might not feel comfortable discussing with anyone else. Counselling can help you to:

• develop a more resilient mindset, to help you bounce back from future setbacks
• provide a safe, non judgemental  place to talk, without being interrupted
• have somewhere to explore how, what and why you think the way you do
• be able to look at the impact of your thinking, in a constructive and impartial way
• develop skills to change unhelpful thinking
• solve problems, set goals and develop solutions
• identify and work with unhelpful thinking and behavioural patterns
• help develop more effective communication skills
• help recognise and stop negative behavioural patterns

The first session is an introductory session – which is generally an outline of what brought you along and what is it you are looking to get out of it.

We might look at an assessment of your current mood and the impact that this is having on your life;  ie  sleeping, eating, drinking patterns.  What is happening with your relationships, your family and social life.  And how this is affecting you physiologically, ie sore head, stomach complaints, stiff neck etc;  .

If its appropriate, CBT will be introduced as a psychoeducational approach to therapy, explaining how you can be your own ‘therapist’.  How you can learn to understand why you are feeling the way you are,  to recognise the thought patterns behind these feelings, and helping you challenge and change them.

Sounds fairly straightforward, however, it is very much a collaborative approach

You need to be fully engaged, honest and open to change.

I won’t know what is going on in your mind,  you are the expert in that

I can help by offering insights into greater awareness, and to facilitate your understanding. I can give you the tools that will help you work out whether or not what is going on in your head is rational and helpful – or if it needs to be challenged and changed.  If you have a look at some of the posts – there is an introduction to the ABC model and negative automatic thoughts, which give an indication of some of these tools.

Although CBT concentrates on the present, and how your thoughts impact on your feelings today. There will often be references to past issues, and how these are still affecting you;  we can explore these issues to help put them in a context of the ‘here and now’ approach of CBT.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT, is a family of talking therapies, all based on the idea that thoughts, feelings, what we do, and how our bodies feel, are all connected. If we change one of these we can alter all the others.

When we’re low or upset, we often fall into patterns of thinking and responding which can worsen how we feel. CBT works to help us notice and change problematic thinking styles or behaviour patterns so we can feel better. 

CBT is a collaborative therapy – it’s not something that is done to someone, it’s a way of working together with a CBT therapist on mutually agreed goals.

CBT works for lots of different people and problems, and is widely recommended by national treatment guidelines across the UK, EU and North America. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) provides independent, evidence-based guidance for the NHS on the most effective, proven treatments. CBT is recommended in NICE guidelines for many different problems, including:

• Anxiety disorders (including panic attacks)
• Low Self Esteem
• Depression
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Bipolar Disorder
• Eating Disorders
• Insomnia

There is also good evidence that CBT is helpful in helping people cope with the symptoms of many other conditions. 

CBT approaches can be used with children as well as adults and older adults. 

A course of CBT can be completed alone or at the same time as taking medication prescribed by a GP or other doctor. This will depend on the issue that the CBT is helping with and on personal choice.

Many case studies have demonstrated the efficacy of CBT where it has been demonstrated to be as effective as, or more effective than other forms of psychological therapy or psychiatric medications. It is important to emphasise that advances in CBT have been made on the basis of both research and clinical practice.  Indeed, CBT is an approach for which there is ample scientific evidence that the methods that have been developed actually produce change. In this manner, CBT differs from many other forms of psychological treatment.

CBT works by informing  a clients understanding of the interaction between their thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours that get triggered in certain environments and situations. CBT starts by looking at your negative automatic thoughts. Negative automatic thoughts can be fleeting, but disturbing when a client is distressed. Early therapy sessions help clients to identify these thoughts and look for evidence to support or dismiss them. As therapy continues, behavioural experiments will help to test out longstanding assumptions that you may hold about yourself. We test different techniques. It’s quite scientific in that respect. CBT also works on your core beliefs.  Clients have held beliefs about themselves since early childhood and in therapy the aim is to find evidence that doesn’t support the belief and to help them build a new belief – such as moving from thinking ‘I am unlovable’ into ‘I am loveable’.

The aim of CBT is that through the sessions, homework and practice you will find out what skills and techniques help you to have a better quality of life. It’s a collaboration; a guided discovery. As a therapist I am just the facilitator.

There are a variety of techniques used in CBT – including keeping thought records, relaxation and breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, identifying and challenging your style of thinking and behavioural experiments.

One technique is behavioural activation which looks at how you engage in certain activities, such as hobbies and socialising, and how you can increase your chances of enjoying them and getting a sense of achievement from life. Another is exposure therapy which helps you learn to face your fears in a methodical and structured way.

I deliver my CBT sessions online or in person. In person is where my client work with me on a one-on-one basis and receive  my full attention. This results in a very focused and intense therapeutic experience where you would learn how to identify and change negative behaviours by developing coping skills.

CBT can also be delivered in a group setting individuals develop insight into their own issues and greater self-awareness by listening to others who have similar problems. Additionally individuals begin to understand that they are not alone in their issues, and other people have similar issues and struggles. This results in the development of a sense of identity, belongingness, and the release of tension and stress.

CBT is a short-term model of therapy. People tend to have it over a period of weeks or a few months, rather than years. After goals have been reached maintenance sessions can be scheduled either every two weeks or monthly, some clients 'top up' every second month, this is entirely up to you. The number of sessions you have is usually discussed at your first appointment.