What Is CBT?

Overview

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy which can help people who are experiencing a wide range of mental health difficulties. It works on the principle that how people think can affect how they feel and subsequently how they behave. This forms the basis of CBT.

During times of mental distress, people think differently about themselves and what happens to them. Thoughts can become extreme and unhelpful and this can worsen how a person feels. They may then behave in a way that prolongs their distress.

CBT practitioners help individuals identify and change their extreme thinking and unhelpful behaviour. In doing this, the result is often a major improvement in how a person feels and lives.

Cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies are a range of therapies based on concepts and principles derived from psychological models of human emotion and behaviour. They include a wide range of treatment approaches for emotional disorders, along a continuum from structured individual psychotherapy to self-help material.

Adapted from British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) website 2013

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