Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is based on the premise that our feelings, thoughts, physical sensations and behaviour all interact with each other. The way that we think can influence the way we feel, and each person's way of thinking is different depending on our life experiences. When we experience an upsetting or traumatic event, we tend to understandably develop negative thoughts about the event, which lead to negative feelings and can trap us in a vicious cycle. CBT teaches that we can improve the way we feel by changing the way that we think.

 

Sessions involve breaking down overwhelming problems into smaller parts such as our thoughts and emotions, analysing these to work out if they are unhelpful and to see how they affect each other as well as their effect on ourselves, and learning to restructure our thoughts to be more positive and see the effect that this has on our actions and the way that we feel. The skills learned in CBT can be applied to our daily lives to help us to manage our problems and feel more confident in dealing with the difficulties that come our way.