Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a structured, talking therapy that can be helpful for a wide range of mental health difficulties. CBT is a collaborative approach to change and requires the patient to be very active in the process.
CBT focuses on a person’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, behaviours and the relationship between these. The goal of CBT is to help people learn how to rethink and re-evaluate how they see the world. This is done by identifying the negative core beliefs held by the patient and working together to challenge them. By learning to recognise negative thinking and behavioural patterns, we can change these negative thoughts into positive statements, which then positively affect the resulting behaviours.
CBT is a collaborative form of therapy, meaning you are an active participant. Your therapist is there alongside you to help create the conditions to bring about positive changes to your thoughts and behaviours. CBT aims to challenge your negative core beliefs using positive action, and these actions are practiced both in and outside of the therapy room. Your therapist may give you ‘homework’ to complete in order to progress positive change.
By using CBT and working with your therapist, you will learn strategies to help you navigate life using positive mechanisms and avoid falling back into your negative patterns. The changes in thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviours can have a lasting impact on peoples’ lives as they find they are able to manage distress better and have a toolbox of resources available to them.
CBT can be used to treat a range of difficulties, including but not limited to:
When we feel distressed or low, we often develop patterns of thinking and behaving which can worsen how we feel, meaning we can end up feeling worse over time. CBT helps us notice and change these problematic habits so we can feel better. CBT seeks to empower people by focusing on what specific changes we can make to not only begin to feel better, but to be able to maintain these improvements later in life.
In the Regional Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies Service, we see people with complex difficulties. With these people, we often incorporate other CBT based treatments into our highly individualised courses of treatments when appropriate. This is carefully considered and targeted towards the person’s difficulties and agreed goals. As such, our clinicians have high levels of sophisticated knowledge and expertise in order to offer these bespoke courses of CBT.
Our service accepts referrals from GPs and other clinicians, but only when our complexity criteria are met. Normally clients referred to us have tried some psychological treatment for their difficulties before being referred to us.
Information about referrals, including the referral form, are on our main Centre for Specialist Psychological Therapies page.
Find the location that this Service is offered at using Google Maps:
Information about the treatments offered by the Newcastle CBT Centre, who provide an expert consultation service to people in the northern region of England.
