Clare Bootle
Clare Bootle
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
About CBT
About CBT
What is CBT?
CBT is a Talking Therapy, which has been shown to successfully help people overcome emotional, and mental health problems.
During times of distress we think differently about ourselves, and what happens to us. We can find ourselves stuck in a vicious cycle, not knowing how we got there or how to get out of it. Sometimes our thoughts can become quite extreme and unhelpful, which can worsen how we feel and change how we behave.
CBT is a structured approach and has a here and now focus, which helps to break down overwhelming problems into individual elements.
These elements are:
It is important to identify the relationship between these elements and the impact they have upon each other. Once the problem areas and their elements have been identified, the therapist and client develop therapy goals, which focuses the treatment in order to address these problems.
Within the therapy sessions you will learn to identify these elements and try new ways of breaking the cycle. It is important for you to collect information or try out new behaviours or new skills between therapy sessions, by putting what has been learnt into practice. This is sometimes called homework or inter-session tasks. It is also important to help you to identify your strengths, which have helped you to manage and cope with your difficulties so far. These skills together, will help you to become your own therapist and feel confident in using these skills for life.
What problems can CBT help?
CBT has been shown to help with many different types of problems such as: social anxiety, health anxiety, generalised anxiety, panic, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bulimia, emotional eating problems, depression, stress, anger problems, bipolar disorder, psychosis, low self esteem, chronic pain, & physical health conditions.
What to expect from sessions:
Online Initial session
The initial session is an opportunity for us to talk about about your current symptoms, their duration, possible triggers, expectations for therapy and personal history. We will discuss CBT treatment in more detail and think about possible therapy goals. If at this point, you or I feel that CBT may not be the most suitable approach, there is no obligation for you to book further sessions.
It is difficult to predict how many sessions will be required to treat each person. However, the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) have published national guidance for the treatment of a variety of health conditions (see useful links page for more details). NICE make recommendations to the NHS and within their guidance, the average length of CBT treatment for common mental health problems is between 12-20 sessions (dependant on severity).
Online Treatment sessions
Treatment sessions usually take place on a weekly basis and last for 50-60 minutes. They are structured and focused around the therapy goals. Within the first 5 minutes, we collaboratively set an agenda for the session; this is to ensure we make the best use of your time. The usual structure of each appointment is to feedback from the homework/inter-session tasks, use this new information to form the main body of the session and finally set relevant new tasks together for the week ahead.
Confidentiality:
I adhere to the BABCP Standards of Conduct, Performance & Ethics. All that we discuss within therapy sessions will remain confidential with the following exceptions:
I have a professional duty of care to take appropriate action to protect the safety and well being of children, adults and vulnerable adults if I have concerns that they are at risk from themselves, from others or pose a risk to others. This may lead to confidentiality being broken with relevant details only passed on to appropriate authorities, such as Police, GP, Social Services.