Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) & CBT informed Psychotherapy, EMDR and DBT in Oxford, Wallingford and worldwide.
What is CBT?
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a talking therapy that is concerned with the way people think and act in various situations, and explores the origins and consequences of thinking and acting in such a way.
CBT has been extensively researched; in fact, more than any other talking therapy. The findings from the research repeatedly demonstrate the effectiveness of CBT in a wide and growing number of conditions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends CBT as first line treatment in the following conditions: Depression, generalised anxiety disorders (GAD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), social phobia, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), health anxiety, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
Research has also shown that people treated with CBT remain well for longer. This may be due in part to one of the implicit aims of CBT, which is to teach individuals to become their own CBT therapist, increasing resilience to relapse.
Whilst the research for CBT is to be welcomed, a note of caution should be aired: it is repeatedly found in all talking therapy research that a fundamental aspect to the success of the treatment is the relationship between client and therapist.
It is part of our philosophy at Oxford Talking Therapies that we pay particular attention to ensuring this essential component of therapy: to this extent we all undertake regular clinical supervision to reflect upon and improve our work.
What is CBT informed Psychotherapy?
Because CBT is based on empirical evidence it is constantly challenged and updated with new research. At Oxford Talking Therapies our clinicians maintain their professional accreditation by regularly attending workshops and training events to further develop their knowledge and experience of the most up to date research and evidence to inform and add to their clinical skills.
Some of the cognitive and behavioural informed interventions currently showing evidence of effectiveness include:
{slider Mindfulness based CBT (MBCT)|closed}
in addition to traditional CBT methods, mindfulness strategies and mindfulness meditation are added. These strategies focus on becoming aware of all incoming thoughts and feelings and accepting them, but not attaching or reacting to them.
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Schema Therapy (ST); Schema therapy joins elements of cognitive therapy, behaviour therapy, object relations, and gestalt therapy into one unified, systematic approach to treatment. A basic assumption of ST is that all of us require certain basic needs to be met as children in order to go on to develop as psychologically healthy adults. When theses needs are not met we can develop ‘schema’ that are unhelpful and these can stay with us, shaping the way we live our lives. In therapy, we look at exploring these unhelpful ways of believing and behaving, and update them. We work on changing and replacing the out of date, unhelpful schema to more functional and healthy beliefs and behaviours. Because such difficulties are relatively long lasting or recurring, Schema therapy tends to be longer in duration than CBT.
{slider Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)}
Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT); integrates techniques from cognitive behavioural therapy with concepts from evolutionary psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, Buddhist psychology, and neuroscience. A main focus of CFT is to use compassionate mind training to help people develop and work with experiences of inner warmth, safeness and soothing, via compassion and self-compassion.
{slider Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC)}
Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC); combines the use of cognitive, behavioural, imagery based and problem solving techniques and strategies within a cognitive behavioural framework to enable coachees to achieve goals that have been formulated to be achievable with realistic means and within a sensible timeframe. It can be particularly useful for clients who face challenging career or life decisions or need to adapt and adjust to life transitions, often proving to be key turning points. CBC can help clients overcome practical problems and deal with emotional, psychological and behavioural blocks to performance and goal achievement.
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Your individual therapist or coach will have knowledge and experience in some or all of the above and can discuss with you how the use of any of these models could be beneficially integrated into your individual experience of therapy.
Find out what to expect when starting therapy...