There are different types of therapy available and it can be confusing to know what may be best for you. The most common forms of therapy are CBT and counselling. CBT is clinically recommended as treatment for common mental health difficulties.

CBT is not only for treating mental ill health. It can also help promote mental wellbeing and prevent illness. For example, stress, low self-esteem and perfectionism can be risk factors for mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. CBT for self esteem, perfectionism and stress may therefore help you learn coping strategies to prevent your mental wellbeing from deteriorating.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on how the way we think and behave affects the way we feel.

Imagine you have an important online meeting and just before you are due to join, your internet connection drops. How would you respond?

Here are examples of two different responses:

Response 1:

This is a disaster! I’m going to look so unprofessional. The internet dropping will sound like an excuse. My team will think I’m just not prepared. Everything always goes wrong for me!
Rush around, cursing. Try to restart computer, restart the router and phone IT support at the same time. Snap at the technician on the phone.
Stress, anger, frustration, impatience, panic.
Feel hot, increased heart rate, sweating, knot in stomach, faster breathing, tension in shoulders and jaw.

Response 2:

That’s odd. I hope I can get it fixed in time. These things happen. I’m sure they will understand. I can send my contribution by email when the connection is back.
Try reconnecting. Look into dialling in as another option. Contact a colleague to let them know about the situation. Make cup of tea while waiting to see is the connection returns.
Mild annoyance, calm.
No noticeable changes

Learn The Skills to Change Your Response with CBT

We can’t always change or control situations, but with CBT, we can learn to change the way we respond to them. This then helps us improve the way we feel. The four areas we’ve looked at – the way we think, behave, feel emotionally and physically – are all inter-related. This means that a change in one areas affects the others too.

We aim to help you develop a CBT toolkit so that you have a variety of tools, techniques and exercises that you can use to help improve your mental health and wellbeing.

The internet dropping may seen insignificant as a single event. But when we are stressed, anxious, or low in mood, we can tend to repeat unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaving. We can get stuck in vicious cycles and the associated emotions.
CBT helps us by breaking these vicious cycles by changing the way we think and behave through structured exercises. This helps us learn coping strategies and improve the way we feel.
CBT is backed by clinical research and is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for a number of mental health difficulties, including anxiety disorders and depression.

If this sounds like an approach you would benefit from, Contact Us now to find out how we van help you get started with your CBT journey.

Want to learn more? about CBT You might enjoy the following:

  • What is CBT Anyway?
  • What to Expect from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
  • 10 Top Tips for Getting The Most out of CBT