Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a relatively short term, focused counselling approach, to the treatment of many types of emotional, behavioural and psychiatric problems. A collaborative and individualised program, CBT helps individuals to identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours, and then to learn or relearn healthier skills and habits. CBT examines all the elements that maintain a problem, including our personal thoughts (cognitions), feelings, behaviour and the environment.
As part of a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy program, some of the cognitive techniques commonly used include identification and modification of automatic thoughts, core beliefs, expectancies, and self-efficacy beliefs, and some of the commonly used behavioural techniques include relaxation training, assertion training, pleasant activity scheduling, and the use of behavioural experiments.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a counselling technique that has been researched extensively, and has demonstrated effectiveness with a variety of emotional difficulties including:
• Depression
• Generalised anxiety
• Panic
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Phobias
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
• Eating disorders
• Sexual Dysfunction
• Couples/marital problems
• Child behaviour problems
• Anger and stress management
