The emphasis in CBT is to help you develop better coping strategies to reduce your symptoms. This might include helping you to deal better with certain emotions, but also often includes exposing you to certain situations and emotions which you might have been avoiding for some time. Any interventions and coping strategies are planned and discussed in detail with you, so you feel comfortable and ready to put this into practice.

Through therapy, you will learn to notice patterns that maintain your difficulties and experiment with new ways of thinking, behaving, and responding.

This usually includes changing thinking patterns, changing behaviour and improving helpful coping strategies. In turn, the latter changes lead to a reduction in unhelpful emotions, such as chronic anxiety, depression and lack of energy.

CBT is based on well-established cognitive and behavioural theories. These theories help us understand how our behaviours and beliefs develop, how they are maintained, and how they influence our emotions and mental health.

For example, learning theories suggest that much of how we behave today is guided by behaviours we learned were helpful in the past. Similarly, cognitive theories highlight how the beliefs we form about ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us shape how we respond to situations.

CBT empowers you with skills and strategies that can be used long after therapy has ended, giving you tools to cope with challenges, problem-solve, and maintain improvements in your mental health and overall wellbeing.