What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?

‘Kick me!!’ I heard.
‘No!’ I said.
‘Do it!!’ I was told……so I did!

I have never kicked anyone before but here I was at 40 years old trying a kickboxing class for the very first time. I was an absolute beginner in a room of people who all looked like they could kick my arse to Halifax and back. I was uncoordinated, unfit and more Tony the Tiger than Eye of the Tiger.

If I’m honest with you, I had nearly talked myself out of going a few times, my mind was full of unhelpful negative chatter, ‘you’ll be rubbish’….’you’ll make a fool of yourself’….’you shouldn’t start things like this at your age, it’s for kids!’ My thoughts made me feel nervous and those nerves made me not want to go, stay at home and eat biscuits.

I weighed it up, put my shoes on and I went. An hour later I walked out of that class feeling like Rocky Balboa! I was knackered, sweaty, unable to feel my arms and legs but I was absolutely on top of the world! It was brilliant and I’ve gone every week since.

So why am I telling you this? My story helps to explain the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT is one of the therapies we offer at Well Minds PTS. The C in CBT stands for cognition which is about our thoughts and the way we think. The way we think affects the way we feel, my thought, ‘you’ll make a fool of yourself’ put pictures in my head of me looking a fool. The idea of looking a fool in front of new people made me feel nervous and gave me butterflies of doom in my stomach.

Thoughts are really powerful but the next bit about CBT is what pulls it altogether. The B is about behaviours or what we do. The things we do are strongly influenced by our thoughts and feelings. So in my example, I had a couple of choices of what to do. My instinct was to avoid it, stay at home and not put myself in any situation where I might look foolish. It would have been safe and comfortable BUT what if I didn’t make a fool of myself? What if something else happened instead? What if I was a naturally gifted kick-boxer with potential to be the next World Champion? I would never find out if I didn’t go…..so I went. As it goes, I’m not naturally gifted and won’t be heading off to compete any time soon, but I also didn’t make a fool of myself and the class couldn’t have been a nicer bunch of kind, encouraging and welcoming people. By going to the class, I challenged my unhelpful thoughts and this made going again next time much easier. I wasn’t nervous anymore. I learnt that trying something new can be uncomfortable, but it can lead to good things in the long run.

As Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapists, we will help you understand your own patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving and their impact on you and how you’re living your life. My example is useful in explaining CBT but perhaps doesn’t capture how difficult things can get for people over long periods of time. Things can get really tough, and it can be hard to pick things apart and make sense of them. We can help with this, we will take time to explore things with you, at your pace, to understand how things got to be this way. Once we understand your struggles, we will teach you skills and strategies to manage things differently so you can live your life in a way that feels good to you. There are lots of different problems we can treat using CBT including low mood, general and health specific worry, OCD, trauma, PTSD, panic, phobias, social anxiety etc.

If you’d like more information about having CBT please click the link below.