What is CBT?

Our student CBT counsellor, Ben Warden, is available mornings and Saturdays for sessions. He wrote this piece for us on his therapy and what he can do for you. If you’d like to see him, please contact the Centre. As he is still a student, we ask that you pay his room hire fees which are £10 per hour, as he is not allowed to charge for his services yet.

What is CBT?
And what can I offer?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, studies how your thoughts affect your life. This works to the ABC principle of Action, Belief and Consequence; if we all reacted the same way to the same things then it would be just Action and Consequence, but we don’t, therefore we each have our own Belief; about ourselves and of the world.

During this kind of therapy we try to unearth the core beliefs that are causing you problems, try to understand why you developed them in the first place and then work together to challenge them.

CBT is goal oriented as it makes this process easier, as it brings a focus to each session and encourages bigger picture thinking in the face of current problems. You may not have a goal to start with, but it may come later on in therapy, as you may then realise what you want to achieve out of this process.

CBT can help with a wide array of mental health issues, but regardless of any diagnosis you may or may not have, I treat each client only as someone who has a problem that needs to be solved.

Problems > core beliefs > goals.

You have the freedom to talk about whatever is troubling you. I will listen to whatever you have to say. We will work together on whatever needs to be done.

Ben Warden