Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT really works – there is a wealth of research evidence that proves the technique is effective. An important advantage of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is that it tends to be a relatively short process, taking three to six months to solve most emotional problems. Typical issues that are ideal for CBT include sleeping difficulties, relationship problems, anxiety or depression, and drug or alcohol abuse.

What is CBT?

CBT counselling is a highly practical approach to problem solving that centres upon talking face-to-face with a skilled and supportive therapist. By using a combination of psychotherapy and behavioural therapy, CBT explores the important effect that our thought processes have on how we feel and what we do.

The psychotherapy element of CBT relates to the importance of the personal meaning we place on things, and how our thinking patterns begin in childhood. The behavioural therapy aspects of the process deal with the relationship between our problems, our thoughts and our behaviour.

Cognitive behavioural therapists teach that our thinking is what causes us to feel and act the way we do.  So, for example, if we are experiencing unwanted feelings and behaviours, once we have identified the thought processes that are causing them, we can learn to replace unhelpful thinking with constructive thoughts that lead to more positive reactions. 

There are several approaches to CBT, including:

• Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy
• Rational Behaviour Therapy
• Rational Living Therapy
• Cognitive Therapy
• Dialectic Behaviour Therapy

These therapies all have a similar approach that focuses on our cognitive processes, which are the thoughts, images, beliefs and attitudes that we have.

What happens in a CBT session?

CBT is usually carried out in structured one-to-one sessions directed by a specially trained therapist. The sessions last for 50 or 60 minutes and are usually held weekly over a period of three to six months. Your CBT therapist works closely with you to identify the unhelpful thinking patterns that are causing your emotional problems, and then shows you how to challenge and change these thoughts, so that you feel better and do things differently. Once you have mastered these skills, you can use them whenever necessary.

Blues Begone® computer-based CBT (cCBT)

Blues Begone is a more affordable alternative to working with a CBT therapist. It is a proven computer-based self-help approach that delivers Cognitive Behavioural Therapy via a personal computer instead of by working with a therapist. It enables the sufferer to gain sufficient knowledge of CBT to self-treat common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety disorders.

Computer-based CBT using the Blues Begone programme is available to use here at Life Story Therapeutic Centre. It’s the ideal solution if you can’t afford face-to-face CBT, or don’t have a computer.  It provides affordable access to evidence-based CBT treatment that is not available from the NHS. The highly supportive training is delivered by a software application called Blues Begone®.

This works in an engaging and interesting way, to promote recovery and maintain wellbeing. After making an initial personal assessment, the application configures itself to reflect your individual needs and circumstances. It then provides from 15 to 40 hours of interactive CBT psychotherapy, consisting of 30 individual episodes delivered over a period of 6 to 8 weeks. To ensure that you understand and absorb the training, assessment and feedback are carried out every five episodes.

Blues Begone is highly personalised: it even talks to you, addressing you by name. More than 300 individual elements are involved, including cartoons, animations and activities. These provide a carefully structured user-experience that builds progressively upon previous lessons, so that as your understanding increases, the programme goes deeper and more thoroughly into helping you reduce your symptoms and manage your life.