Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

How it works

Cognitive behavioural therapy is structured and concrete. We identify the thought patterns and the behaviours that keep the problem going, and set up experiments that test them in real life — not in theory.

There is often homework between sessions. That is not decoration: it is where most of the change happens.

What it is best suited to

Anxiety disorders, OCD, sleep problems (CBT-I), panic disorder and phobias. For depression we often use it in combination with ISTDP.

We are not dogmatic about method. We choose according to what works for you — and change course if it turns out not to.

How it fits into our work

We do not offer CBT as a course of treatment in its own right. Its methods and techniques are integrated into our treatment.

That is not a concession. It is a description of what ISTDP actually does — because the method works largely with the same material, just under different names.

Cognitive therapy identifies the thought patterns and behaviours that keep the problem going, and tests them. ISTDP does something very closely related, but calls them defences — and self-blame, rumination, intellectualising and worry are among the most common of all. Same goal, different vocabulary.

The difference lies in what happens next. ISTDP does not stop at changing the thought pattern. It goes after the underlying feelings that set the pattern in motion.

Rumination is rarely a random bad habit. It is usually a way of keeping something at a distance that is too much to feel. If you remove the worry without touching the feeling, the system often finds a new way of doing the same job. That is why we work on both at once.