Cognitive & Behavioural Therapies

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, more commonly termed CBT, is a solution focussed form of psychotherapy that is focused on the here and now and offered by the White Lodge Therapy.  It looks in detail at the pattern of your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and then teaches you ways of overcoming any problems. 

The aim of CBT and other solution focussed therapies is to break any negative cycles by teaching you to recognise unhelpful beliefs and to change them to more balanced and realistic ones (not just positive thinking) and to modify any unhelpful behaviours that are helping to keep the cycle going.  The therapy focusses on the thoughts and feelings that lead to the unwanted and maladaptive behaviour.  

You will be guided by your Therapist to explore and notice unhelpful coping behaviours, which may reduce distress in the short term but help to maintain or worsen problems in the long term. Activity planning and goal setting is an important part of the therapy to help overcome beliefs of hopelessness and failure. 

CBT is an active and co-operative therapy. Your Therapist will work with you to help you overcome your problems through experiment and discovery. This means that you will be invited to participate in tasks to complete away from the session to continue this process. This is an essential part of the process.

Behavioural therapy is focused on human behaviour and explores ways to adapt the thinking errors and negative behaviour into more healthy and rational responses.  Behavioural therapies are typically used for addictions, anxieties, phobias, post traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorders.  The goals of behavioural therapy are developed between you and your Therapist, it is a collaborative process of negotiation and all clients will have different objectives.  

In general, the goal of most behavioural therapy will be to assist you in reducing the intensity of your problems so that your difficulties impact less upon your day to day life.

Behavioural therapy may include confrontation with the fear or stimulus, often referred to as ‘flooding’ and this process involves exposing you to your fear-invoking situation or object aiming to reduce or desensitise the severity of your responses or symptoms. 

CBT and other behavioural therapies are usually short-term in duration (6 weeks) but this may be extended depending upon the severity of your symptoms.  Your Therapist will discuss your treatment plan at the assessment stage.

Solution focussed therapy endeavours to look at what you wish to achieve as opposed to exploring the historical problems that may or may not have contributed to how you are feeling, behaving or thinking.  It is goal orientated, task driven and can be helpful to you if you have a goal or desire to change.

Please contact the team at White Lodge Therapy to explore what type of therapy would be suitable for you.