What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment that has been validated in thousands of clinical trials for the treatment of a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, trauma, personality disorders, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

CBT is a collaborative therapy in which you will work with your therapist to understand the issues that you are having. CBT explores the interconnections between the ways we think, how we feel, and the things that we do in order to understand your problems and help you develop more adaptive ways of being for yourself. CBT is a structured and time-limited therapy, which means that each session is designed to be as effective and efficient as possible to help you with your problems. In order to help you get the most out of your sessions, a CBT therapist will work with you to set an agenda at the beginning of session so that you can prioritize topics that are most important to you. CBT is time-limited because most people will not need ongoing therapy and will be able to maintain their improvements on their own once therapy is over.

CBT usually involves a 50 minute session once per week for 12 – 20 weeks (some conditions, such as bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders, or personality disorders may require a longer duration of treatment). One session per week is not a great deal of time when there are 168 total hours in a week. Thus, in CBT it is helpful to do therapy work in between sessions as well. Your therapist will work with you to set-up an action plan to work on in between sessions that is linked to what you found most helpful about the session. These action plans are individualized so that you are always working on something that is meaningful to you.

CBT is effective for a variety of experiences, including:

Depression Somatic Symptom Disorders

Anxiety Interpersonal Difficulties

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Hallucinations

Tic-Related Disorders Life Transitions

Body Focused Repetitive Behaviours Adjustment Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Work Achievement

Stress Disorders

Specific Phobias

Social Anxiety

Agoraphobia

Panic Disorder

Health Anxiety

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Dependent Personality Disorde

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

Schizophrenia

Psychosis

Our goal is to help you meet your goals as efficiently and as effectively as possible. Schedule a free consultation today to speak to one of our trained cognitive behavioural therapists to see how we can help.