Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

What Is Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy?

Cognitive-behavioural therapy is a form of psychotherapy that aims to help individuals change how they think and act. This approach holds that changing how we feel, or changing our experiences, results from shifting how we think and behave. In other words, if you wish to affect what it’s like to be you, alter how you think and behave first.

What Happens in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

In this approach to therapy, you are invited to identify and address negative self-concepts that evolve from what are termed distorted beliefs. The therapist encourages you to focus your attention on thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes that may not be serving you well.

CBT is structured and often includes “homework”, or post-session writing assignments. CBT is usually a time-limited, problem-focused, and solution-oriented way of working with mental health issues. You work with the therapist to understand how your thoughts and habits interact with your behaviour to create your emotional problems.

What Are Examples of Distorted Beliefs?

Common examples of distorted beliefs that a CBT therapy will seek to address include:

• Black-and-white thinking
• Leaping to conclusions
• Catastrophizing
• Personalizing situations to find where one may be responsible or at fault
• Excess use of “shoulds”: rigid rules applied to both self and others
• Expecting others to change
• Emotional reasoning: holding what one feels as factual

How Does Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Differ from Other Therapies?

Unlike other forms of psychotherapy, CBT focuses primarily on your difficulties in the present, and on practical steps to alter them. Your unconscious motivations as well as personal and childhood histories may not be considered; emotions and feelings may not be deeply explored as CBT views them as possibly contrafactual, or a byproduct of wayward thinking. As CBT commonly focuses on goals and outcomes, conscious commitment to shifting behaviour is necessary.