What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (also called CBT) is actually an umbrella term for a number of different therapies, which share the following characteristics:

• Short-term (usually 6-20 sessions)
• Involves discussing current difficulties, in the “here and now”
• Therapy is practical, solution-oriented, teaches strategies and skills
• Collaborative, therapist and client develop a positive therapeutic relationship
• Evidence-based, scientific research has shown it to be effective
• Involves understanding the interrelationships between situations, thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, behaviours, and outcomes
• Involves practising new skills both inside and outside of the therapy room

What types of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy are offered at Blake Psychology?

We specialize in developing personalized treatment plans that draw from a variety of evidence-based CBT approaches, such as:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
• Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy:

The first type of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – which is in fact called by the same name, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (confusing, we know!)  is based on the scientific study of how we learn to react emotionally, behaviourally, and cognitively. It focuses on helping people to identify the thoughts and beliefs that are leading to emotional suffering, and the maladaptive ways of behaving that tend to exacerbate problems.

Through the identification of such processes, and the learning of new skills, more adaptive ways of thinking and behaving can be developed.

Cognitive interventions, may include things like:

• Identifying and challenging cognitive distortions (e.g., mind-reading, black and white thinking, jumping to conclusions, catastrophizing, etc.)
• Identifying maladaptive beliefs, and replacing them with more adaptive ones
• Reality testing: identifying thoughts and empirically collecting evidence for or against, to develop more accurate ways of thinking, and ultimately behaving

Behavioural interventions, may include things like:

• Exposure for fears and phobias (imaginal exposure, interoceptive exposure, in-vivo-exposure, exposure and response prevention)
• Behavioural Activation for treating depression
• Social skills training
• Communication skills
• Anger management skills
• Relaxation skills
• Coping strategies for addictions