Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

“You are not broken, or in need of being fixed; you are simply ‘stuck’ in a period of distress. Let’s see what we can do together do help you become ‘unstuck’ from this moment as we don’t want you to be in any more distress than what you have to or need to be in…”

 

Maslow Therapies provides high quality, evidence based, psychological therapy for a range of emotional and practical challenges such as anxiety, depression or chronic pain. The main therapeutic modality we use is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which is deemed to be the “Gold Standard” approach due to its vast clinically effective evidence-base in treating the most common mental health difficulties. As such, ALL of our staff are accredited as CBT therapists by the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP), thus ensuring that we maintain the highest standards in the care and treatment that we provide.

We have many years’ experience of working with people experiencing emotional distress and a range of mental/physical health difficulties. Specifically, Maslow Therapies adopts a collaborative approach with the people we work with, in order to decipher whether a talking therapy, such as CBT, might be beneficial. To date, some of the issues we have worked with include:

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • OCD

  • PTSD

  • Health Anxiety

  • Social Anxiety

  • Low self-esteem

  • Addiction

  • Phobias

  • Anger Management

  • Procrastination

  • Panic

  • Pain Management

  • Disordered Eating

  • Generalised Anxiety Disorder

  • Perfectionism

  • Public Speaking

  • Bullying

  • Relationship Challenges

 

But… What exactly is CBT?

CBT is a particular branch of psychotherapy that has evolved gradually over the last century or so. Essentially, CBT proposes two central themes:

  1. Situations in themselves do NOT cause psychological distress. Rather, it is the way in which individuals interpret or construe situations which causes them distress. We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

  2. Links exist between our thoughts, emotions, behaviours, physical sensations, and our surrounding environment. According to CBT, all of these elements are linked together in one interactional system and therefore in order to help someone who is experiencing distress we must understand how all of these things fit together.

Example:

Casey attended Maslow Therapies in an attempt to overcome her anxiety and focus on the things that really matter to her. The below illustrates one example of Casey’s response to uncertainty and the bidirectional links between her thoughts / emotions / behaviours / physical sensations / environment.

What will my treatment look like?

CBT is an active and collaborative form of therapy in which the client is seen as having expertise in themselves and their situation; and the therapist as having the expertise in psychology. As such, Maslow Therapies offer a bespoke treatment package that places a particular emphasis on both parties contributing to, both during and outside of, sessions to help the client become ‘unstuck’ from the period of distress that they are currently experiencing. In doing so, Maslow Therapies aims to help all of their clients to become their own therapist and navigate the ‘rocky roads’ of life more favourably during stormy weathers by using their own psychological ‘umbrella.’

You can read much more about CBT at https://www.babcp.com/Public/What-is-CBT.aspx

How long will my treatment take?

As a rough estimate, as per NICE guidelines, CBT sessions may last between 5-20 sessions (with each session lasting between 30 to 60 minutes in duration) depending upon your situation. If you would like to discuss your situation to see if a talking therapy would help, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Third Wave Approaches to CBT

Third wave cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an emerging approach to psychotherapy that is born from the desire to compliment and improve first (i.e., behavioural) and second (i.e., cognitive) waves. Third wave approaches value holism and emphasise accepting our thoughts within context instead of simply judging our thoughts as good or bad. At Maslow Therapies, we integrate both traditional, and third wave approaches such as:

 Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

The natural default position of the mind is to go over and over what has happened to us in the past (i.e., in our lives, last week, 5 minutes ago) and to worry about what might happen to us in the future. Although this natural default position functions to try and keep us safe; unfortunately, it transpires that the mind keeps us stuck in a loop of living between our miserable past or worrying about our future.

Mindfulness refers to our ability to become aware of what is going on inside the body and mind as well as what is in our external environment in the present moment without casting any judgement. In essence, Mindfulness is the process by which we cultivate the skill to notice thoughts as they arise and learn to choose how we respond to them rather than acting automatically.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy (or ‘act’ as it is commonly known) is an evidence-based transdiagnostic treatment modality that provides a humane an effective way of changing human behaviour to relieve distress and suffering, and helps individuals identify their values and take committed action towards pursuing them. ACT further helps promote ‘psychological flexibility’ and helps cultivate tools that help to change the relationship between an individual and their experiences.