Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (commonly known as CBT) is a “talking therapy” based on the idea that “what we think (Cognition) affects the way we feel (Behave), and what we feel affects the way we think.”

It is built on five key CBT principles and directly addresses a number of ‘thinking errors’ or ‘traps’ that people frequently ‘fall into’ as a result of previously learned or socially conditioned thinking styles.

By helping you to understand and manage your thoughts and beliefs CBT helps you to create different outcomes – feelings and behaviours, particularly over-eating behaviours.

As a specific strategy for change, it may be more suited to people who do not want to “go back” or “re-visit” past negative experiences in their lives and its primary focus is on your life TODAY rather than what may have ‘happened’ in the past.

Occasionally it may prove to be useful to ‘consider past experiences and how you may be using ‘life strategies’ that you learnt during those years, but the critical point within Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is that is NOT the past affecting you TODAY, but rather how you THINK about the PAST today!

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy sessions are often referred by GP’s as an alternative to the prescribing of medication and has been proven to be a very effective therapeutic technique for dealing with limiting beliefs and cognitive distortions and is one of the NHS’s preferred therapies due to the fact that it produces measurable results over the course of the sessions.

You can read more about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy on the Lee Psychology website.