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How Does CBT Work?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) explores the relationship between your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It can help you identify unhelpful patterns of thinking and understand how these may influence the way you feel and respond to particular situations.

Understanding Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviour

The way we interpret a situation can have a significant influence on our emotional response to it. Over time, particular ways of thinking can become automatic, making it difficult to recognise how much they are affecting everyday life.

CBT helps bring these patterns into greater awareness.

During therapy, you may explore particular situations, the thoughts that occur in response to them, how those thoughts make you feel and the behaviours that follow. Once these connections become clearer, you can begin to question unhelpful assumptions and experiment with different ways of responding.

CBT can also include practical strategies and exercises that help you apply what you explore during sessions to situations in everyday life.

It is commonly used to support people experiencing difficulties such as anxiety, low mood, stress, low self-esteem, fears and other emotional or behavioural challenges.

There is no single therapeutic approach that is right for everyone. Individual therapy can help you explore your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and find an approach that reflects your circumstances and what you would like to achieve