My Approach.. CBT..What is it??

A very simple example is your partner being two hours late home from work and having their phone was switched off. If you were thinking to yourself that they have had an accident and you were constantly phoning and texting, you would probably be anxious or angry. If you thought that their battery had died, they were having a drink after work, or the train had broken down, you would be a lot more relaxed. 

Sounds so simple, doesn't it? This example demonstrates that events such as a partner being late home doesn't make you anxious or angry, it's what we're telling ourselves.

Now imagine that you were struggling with social anxiety and became extremely anxious at the thought of going to a party. We know from the earlier example that the party is not making you anxious: it's what you're telling yourself that is. CBT will explore what you are telling yourself about the party and challenge those beliefs, helping you to see that they are irrational and false. By changing them to more rational beliefs that are true, allows you to change how you feel about the party from extremely anxious, to just being concerned.

CBT is different from other therapies as it concentrates on the here and now and how you are feeling at the moment. Instead of focusing on the causes of your distress or symptoms in the past, it looks for ways to improve your state of mind now.

CBT can be very effective if the client is prepared to work hard for emotional change. Clients can start to feel a change in as little as four sessions. It is evidence based and is one of the most effective treatments for anxiety disorders.

CBT is a doing therapy. Clients have to change how they think and how they behave and this can be very challenging. You will only work with myself and I'll make sure you don't find the sessions overwhelming. Clients are set agreed homework tasks to be carried out each week in order to achieve emotional change in the shortest time possible.

Each session is one hour long and I normally see clients from four to sixteen sessions.