Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is one of the most widely used and well-researched therapies for common mental health difficulties such as anxiety, depression, stress, and low self-esteem. It focuses on the connection between thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and physical responses, and how these patterns can keep difficulties going over time.
CBT helps you notice cycles such as worrying, avoiding, overthinking, or withdrawing, and develop practical skills that can shift those patterns.
What CBT involves
CBT often includes:
Understanding the patterns that keep certain difficulties going
Learning ways to question or step back from unhelpful thoughts
Trying new behaviours that support confidence, calm, and flexibility
Developing practical strategies that can be used in everyday life
CBT also includes more targeted approaches for specific difficulties. One example is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which is considered the gold-standard CBT approach for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). ERP involves gradually facing feared thoughts or situations while reducing the compulsions or avoidance behaviours that maintain anxiety.
What Schema Therapy involves
What Schema Therapy involves
How I use CBT
Elements of CBT appear in many sessions. Sometimes this happens in a structured way, and other times the ideas are used more gently depending on what feels most useful in the moment.
I use CBT flexibly rather than following a rigid structure. It is often integrated with other evidence-based approaches such as Schema Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), self-compassion approaches, solution-focused work, and attachment-focused therapy.
In practice this means:
Strategies are chosen based on your goals, preferences, and capacity
The pace of therapy is adjusted to what feels manageable
Skills are developed in ways that connect with your real life and experiences
CBT provides a useful framework for understanding patterns and experimenting with new ways of responding. It works well alongside other approaches that focus on deeper patterns, emotional insight, and long-term change.