Cognitive Behaviour Therapy & EMDR Burton, Derby & Lichfield

What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy?

Imagine the following situation:

Its the middle of the night and you are sleeping in bed. You are woken by a loud noise in the kitchen downstairs. How do you think you might feel?

Well, as this diagram makes clear, there's more than one possible answer:

Woken by a loud noise in the kitchen
What goes through your mind?	Oh my God I'm getting burgled	It's just the cat again, knocked over my plant	That'll be my son/daughter home from the club
How do you feel?	Frightened	Not bothered	Relieved
What do you do?	Call the Police and hide in the wardrobe until they arrive	Turn over and go back to sleep	Go and see how their night went and have a cuppa

Now of course there are other ways, not shown, in which someone might interpret hearing a noise in the night. Perhaps you can think of some and of the different emotions you might experience as a result?

Note that your thoughts don't just affect your feelings; they can also influence the actions you take.

And while it might seem daft to consult a therapist over nothing more than a noise in the night, the basic principle is exactly the same when it comes to major and more complex problems.

So, in essence CBT is based on the premise that the way you think affects the way you feel and behave, and it is very much to do with your perception and appraisal of a situation and experience. The main purpose of CBT is to help you to identify and change your thinking patterns, assumptions, beliefs and behaviour. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy ultimately improves your mood by changing your thoughts and behaviour.

Self help strategies and problem-solving are also a focus in therapy so often you will be able to maintain your improvement once therapy is complete.

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