Your CBT Therapist and What is CBT Counselling?
Introduction
The aim of this short article is to explain what is CBT counselling and it will also explain how CBT therapist works.
How the CBT counselling evolved?
The word CBT stands for cognitive behavioural therapy. The word cognitive refers to your thoughts. The cognitive behavioural counselling then focuses working with, assessing, exploring, finding issues with your thoughts and behaviours. The cognitive behavioural therapy or counselling was developed by Aaron Beck who as his majority of contemporaries were trained in classical psychoanalysis. When Beck worked with his patients he noticed they focused a lot on their negative thoughts. He created the cognitive behavioural therapy as a counselling method to help clients manage their negative thoughts. Later, the CBT method was adapted by other practitioners to treat PTSD, OCD, personality and anxiety disorders.
What happens in the CBT counselling session?
The CBT counselling is a very focused method. Unlike in the classical psychoanalysis counselling that believes that the therapist is mainly a blank screen on which the client projects problems, the CBT therapy is very focused and collaborative. In a typical CBT counselling session, the therapist will ask what is your goal. The assessment of your issues is taken and then the session starts. You will talk about your history, about what symptoms you have, how long have you had done, how does it impact your relationships and how do you cope with it. Each client's problems are unique, so depending on the content of the session, the therapist will create a tailor-made conceptualisation of your issue and later some assignments for you to continue with at home. The extra work on the issue in between the sessions, means that you should progress faster. You will be given easy to do, simple and fun assignments. Some other tools that the CBT therapist might use is a Socratic questioning,which means open ended questioning that aims to shed a light on your issue. The CBT therapy is also evidence based approach. This means that your thoughts and believes are measured against reality in easy steps during the sessions. This approach like most approaches aims to focus on your thoughts, feelings, behaviours and also the therapeutic alliance. The change happens via the therapeutic relationship, through behavioural experiments and home assignments such as flash cards.
The CBT Therapist
What does your CBT therapist look like? The CBT therapist is like any other therapist. It is a person, trained either exclusively in CBT or this person might have a past training in other therapeutic approaches, most do. The CBT therapists have in-depth training how to relate people in a sensitive manner, they will focus on your feelings, thoughts and behaviours. They are focused, they keep an eye on making sure, the work stays focused on your goals. The CBT therapist will give you assignments. They talk and I say this because some clients complained that some therapists using different approaches don't talk, which clients find uncomfortable.
How can you self-refer for CBT Counselling?
You can simply contact us and explain when would be the best time of the week for your session.
How many sessions will you need?
The number of sessions, depend on how complex and old your issue is, if there are an ongoing issues that need to be also addressed, if you take or not take drugs or alcohol, if you feel motivated to make a few positive adjustment to your life, how focused or not focused you are, how often can you make yourself available for the sessions. If you have any further questions about CBT counselling or if you want to book a session with a CBT therapist, please do not hesitate to contact us and we can schedule a session for you.