Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

What is CBT?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is one of the strongest and most rigorously tested psychological approaches for managing a wide array of conditions, including depression, anxiety, insomnia, anger, panic, and stress. CBT is a psychotherapy that focuses on the connections between our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, and how they influence one another (“Cognitive” refers to our thoughts). Decades of research shows that CBT is one of the most effective treatments for a host of difficulties, including depression, anxiety, anger management, insomnia, among others. In practice, CBT is active and goal-oriented. You and your clinician agree on specific goals, track how you are doing from week to week, and practice new skills between sessions so that progress carries into daily life. Many people notice meaningful change within a relatively short course of treatment, and the skills you build stay with you long after therapy ends.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

How Does It Work?

CBT teaches you to recognize how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors influence each other. After building this awareness, CBT teaches you how to challenge thought patterns that are particularly unhelpful to you. With continued practice recognizing and challenging thoughts that are unhelpful, you are able to learn more helpful ways of thinking, take positive steps in your life, and feel better. This specific therapy also allows for greater insight into the root causes of these unhelpful thought patterns so that you are more easily able to identify them in any situation.  When we are depressed or anxious, we typically have unhelpful, irrational, and often negative thoughts about ourselves, the future, and/or the world. These thoughts usually make us feel more depressed or anxious and make us behave in ways that make us feel even worse, such as isolating ourselves. These types of thoughts seem to occur automatically without us even realizing it. Sometimes you don’t even notice that you have had a thought; you just feel angry or frustrated after a triggering event. CBT helps us to notice and identify automatic thoughts that are upsetting, challenge them, and create a more realistic, balanced perspective of situations in our lives.

What Can I Expect With CBT?

You will learn how to re-engage in activities that you used to enjoy.

You will learn to recognize the connections between your thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

You will learn how to identify and challenge unhelpful automatic thoughts in order to take control of your symptoms.

CBT Emphasizes Collaboration

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) works best as a partnership: you and your clinician set goals together and practice new skills between sessions. Your active participation, including homework and feedback, keeps treatment focused.

CBT Teaches Many Skills

You build a toolkit that may include relaxation training, grounding, behavioral activation, cognitive restructuring, exposure, and meditation. Along the way, you learn which tools work best for you and how to use them in daily life.

CBT Is Structured And Time-Limited

Sessions follow a consistent structure: setting an agenda, reviewing practice, and planning what to work on next. A typical course is about 12–20 sessions for depression, 6–12 for anxiety and phobias, and 4–8 for insomnia.

Learn To Be Your Own Therapist

Practicing skills between sessions prepares you to handle new challenges after therapy ends. Understanding the sources of your distress helps you spot early signs of relapse and act on a plan.