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CBT comes to the Amethyst Centre

We’re really pleased to welcome Ben Warden to the team in the Centre later this month. Ben is a student CBT practitioner and is looking for case studies to complete his qualification. If you, or if you know of someone who has been told CBT would help them but who needs to see someone privately, then we can help you as we charge £10 per hour to see student members of the counselling team. He will be available mornings from the 22nd June onwards.

Here’s what he says about himself:

Having been a near lifelong sufferer of Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), I would like to think that I understand, perhaps more than most, the day to day effects of a mental illness; whether it is one that is diagnosed or one that is self identified. Recently completing ten weeks of therapy myself has certainly freshened up my own perspective, therefore I understand the kind of positive impact a course of therapy can bring. However, even those without these kind of day to day issues can still benefit from therapy, especially if they find certain aspects of their own lives often difficult: for example, being more assertive at work or at home.

With Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), the modality I am studying and will offer on placement, I will be letting the client know that it is to be a collaborative process; between them and myself; that will be studying the link between their situations, feelings, thoughts and behaviours/bodily sensations, and how they impact on certain aspects of their life, or their life in general. Once these links have been realised and understood, we can then both identify what the cause is, which according to theory, is their core belief; about themselves and of the world. Once this is identified, we then work together; using the client’s own suggestions; to put measures into place in order to assist them in future situations or general life: either through role play or their own devised action plan. CBT can work with issues on the surface, therefore the client does not necessarily have to talk about deep or uncomfortable issues in order for the therapy to be effective, but they do have the freedom to do so if they so wish, as we are here for them and whatever they want to get out of this, which is why it is a goal oriented therapy.

Working via a medium of verbal communication and occasional paperwork, there will not only be the therapeutic benefit of all talking therapies, but the opportunity for the client to take the necessary safeguarding tools with them after therapy has ended. Having had CBT myself a couple of years ago, writing down some of those swirling and uncomfortable thoughts is a sobering, but enlightening process; and does feel like a first step forward to recovery, even if it is difficult to begin with. Feeling that I have made tangible inroads to recovering from GAD, day by day of course, I not only have the education received from my Counselling and Psychotherapy course so far, but the will and determination to help