CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT is perhaps one of the best-known therapies available for clients experiencing all sorts of mental health issues or concerns. Through a process led by talking, the therapy explores how a client’s core beliefs and thought processes influence their behaviour, and how they respond to adverse experiences.  

The client will typically recognise negative feelings or behaviours, such as anxiety or aggression, on a regular basis when faced with difficult or threatening situations in daily life. CBT is a fantastic therapy for helping clients to take control of how they respond to such situations. 

The team at JSA work with our CBT clients via a combination of different strategies and approaches. We look at day-to-day difficulties to identify the common thought processes, or ‘core beliefs’, that underpin them. Once the reason for these feelings and behaviours is understood, we can work towards a positive change.  

Clients may struggle to express exactly how they are struggling with an issue at first. With time, they are provided with the opportunity to address the complexity of their issues, and fully articulate how they feel and what needs they have. 

The great thing about CBT with our team at JSA is that it continues to work between and after the individual sessions. Our therapists will provide clients with exercises to take away and implement on their own. These could include tasks to practice helpful techniques, or behaviour diaries to observe the impact of therapy for themselves. 

In this way, the client is able to bring the benefits of therapy with them outside of the confines of an hour’s session. In effect, the way CBT works is to empower clients with the agency and skill to better improve their own mental health and coping skills, which will ensure that the positive effects of therapy can be sustained long after sessions are concluded.