CBT is one of the most researched and widely used therapy approaches. It is built on a simple idea: thoughts, feelings and behaviour are connected, so shifting unhelpful thinking patterns and habits can ease difficult emotions and change what you do.
CBT works in the present. Rather than starting with your history, it looks at the patterns keeping a problem going now — the automatic thoughts, the things you avoid, the habits that give short-term relief and long-term cost — and gives you concrete ways to test and change them. It is strongly evidence-based for anxiety, depression, panic, phobias and insomnia (as CBT-I), and it is the foundation many other approaches build on.
Sessions are structured and goal-focused. You and your practitioner agree what you are working on, and there is usually something to do between sessions: tracking thought patterns, trying a different response to a situation, or gradually facing something you have been avoiding. Progress is reviewed as you go, and a course is often relatively brief.
People who like a practical, skills-based approach and want tools they can keep using after therapy ends. It is less suited to those who mainly want open-ended exploration of the past — psychodynamic or schema approaches fit that better.
Further reading: Australian Psychological Society — CBT.
Often between six and twenty sessions depending on the concern, with many people noticing change in the first few. Your practitioner will suggest a plan and review it with you.
Usually, yes — small, agreed tasks between sessions. It is a large part of why CBT works, and it is negotiated with you, not imposed.
Yes. CBT is one of the focused psychological strategies covered under Better Access, with a GP Mental Health Treatment Plan and an eligible practitioner.
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