Therapy in Solihull and Loughborough

What are the cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies?

Aaron Beck initially developed the idea of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for psychological distress after noticing that certain anxious or depressed clients experienced specific unhelpful thinking patterns of which they were only dimly aware, unless their attention was directly focused on them. These thoughts that Beck identified led to powerful and compelling feelings, but usually did not tell a balanced, reasonable story. He also noticed that people who are depressed or anxious do not readily think to question the validity of their thinking. These unhelpful thoughts were also noted to effect not just how a person feels but their behaviour as well such as difficulty getting going with and completing daily activities, avoidance of specific situations and difficulty with the achievement of personal goals at home or at work.

The main goal of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is thus to help individuals, families or couples bring about coping and changes in behaviour or thinking.

Goals for change may involve:

• Changing behaviour e.g. being more assertive

• Changing feelings e.g. being less fearful or depressed

• Changing thinking patterns e.g. learning how to solve problems or deal with self defeating negative thoughts or beliefs

• Improving coping e.g. dealing with panic or avoidance