Challenging your thoughts

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

learn more about CTB

What is CBT?

CBT is a popular form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the importance of underlying thoughts in determining how we feel and act. Considered to be one of the most successful forms of psychotherapy to come around in decades, cognitive behavioural therapy has become the focus of hundreds of research studies.
The aim of CBT is to help you uncover, investigate and change your own thought patterns and reactions, since these are really what cause our perceptions and determine our behaviours, resulting in stress, anxiety, fear, depression. This offers you a valuable perspective, which helps improve your quality of life and manage stress better. CBT is not simply “problem-solving” a way through tough situations.
Something that might surprise you about CBT: A core principle is that external situations, interactions with other people and negative events are not responsible for our poor moods and problem in most cases. It’s, in fact, our own reactions to events, the things we tell ourselves about the events — which are within our control — that end up affecting our quality of life.
This is great news — because it means we have the power to change! Through cognitive behavioural therapy, we can learn to change the way we think, which changes the way we feel, which in turn changes the way we view and handle tough situations when they arise. We can become better at intercepting disruptive thoughts that make us anxious, isolated, depressed, prone to emotionally eating and unwilling to change negative habits.
When we can accurately and calmly look at situations without distorting reality or adding additional judgments or fears, we’re better able to know how to react appropriately in a way that makes us feel happiest in the long run.

improving your life with CBT

Proven Benefits

A 2012 meta-analysis published in the Journal of Cognitive Therapy and Research identified 269 studies that supported the use of CBT for the following problems:

substance abuse disorders
schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
depression and dysthymia
manic depression/bipolar disorder
anxiety disorders
somatoform disorders
eating disorders
sleep disorders, including insomnia
personality disorders
anger and aggression
criminal behaviours
general stress and distress due to general medical conditions
chronic fatigue syndrome
muscle pains and tension
pregnancy complications and female hormonal conditions

Researchers found the strongest support for CBT in treating anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, bulimia, anger control problems and general stress. After reviewing 11 review studies comparing improvement rates between CBT and other therapy treatments, they found that CBT showed higher response rates than the comparison treatments in seven of the 11 reviews (more than 60 percent). Only one of 11 reviews reported that CBT had lower response rates than comparison treatments, leading researchers to believe that CBT is one of the most effective therapy treatments there is.

helping you...

Here are some of the major ways cognitive behavioural therapy benefits patients from different walks of life:

"empirically supported treatments for depression"

Lowers Symptoms of Depression

Cognitive behavioural therapy is one of the best-known, empirically supported treatments for depression. Studies show that CBT helps patients overcome symptoms of depression like hopelessness, anger and low motivation, and lowers their risk for relapses in the future.

CBT is believed to work so well for relieving depression because it produces changes in cognition (thoughts) that fuel vicious cycles of negative feelings and rumination. Research published in the journal Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Mood Disorders found that CBT is so protective against acute episodes of depression that it can be used along with, or in place of, antidepressant medications. CBT has also shown promise as an approach for helping handle postpartum depression and as an adjunct to medication treatment for bipolar patients. Additionally, preventive cognitive therapy (a variant of CBT) paired with antidepressants were found to assist patients who experienced reoccurring depression. The 2018 human study assessed 289 participants then randomly assigned them to PCT and antidepressants, antidepressants alone or PCT with declining use of antidepressants after recovery. The study found that found that preventive cognitive therapy paired with antidepressant treatment was first-rate compared to antidepressant treatment alone.

"treatment for anxiety-related disorders"

Reduces Anxiety

According to work published in Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, there’s strong evidence regarding CBT treatment for anxiety-related disorders, including panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Overall, CBT demonstrates both efficacy in randomized controlled trials and effectiveness in naturalistic settings between patients with anxiety and therapists.

Researchers have found that CBT works well as a natural remedy for anxiety because it includes various combinations of the following techniques: psycho-education about the nature of fear and anxiety, self-monitoring of symptoms, somatic exercises, cognitive restructuring, image and in vivo exposure to feared stimuli (exposure therapy), weaning from ineffective safety signals, and relapse prevention.

"address the underlying psychopathology of eating disorders"

Helps Treat Eating Disorders

The Journal of Psychiatric Clinics of North America reports that eating disorders provide one of the strongest indications for cognitive behavioural therapy. CBT has been found to help address the underlying psychopathology of eating disorders and question the over-evaluation of shape and weight. It can also interfere with the maintenance of unhealthy body weights, improve impulse control to help stop binge eating or purging, reduce feelings of isolation, and help patients become more comfortable around “trigger foods” or situations using exposure therapy.

Cognitive therapy has become the treatment of choice for treating bulimia nervosa and “eating disorders not otherwise specified” (EDNOS), the two most common eating disorder diagnoses. There’s also evidence that it can be helpful in treating around 60 percent of patients with anorexia, considered to be one of the hardest mental illnesses to treat and prevent from returning.

"structured sessions"

Reduces Addictive Behaviours and Substance Abuse

Research has shown that CBT is effective for helping treat cannabis and other drug dependencies, such as opioid and alcohol dependence, plus helping people quit smoking cigarettes and gambling. Studies published in the Oxford Journal of Public Health involving treatments for smoking cessation have found that coping skills learned during CBT sessions were highly effective in reducing relapses in nicotine quitters and seem to be superior to other therapeutic approaches.

There’s also stronger support for CBT’s behavioural approaches (helping to stop impulses) in the treatment of problematic gambling addictions compared to control treatments.

"improve your confidence"

Helps Improve Self-Esteem and Confidence

Even if you don’t suffer from any serious mental problems at all, CBT can help you replace destructive, negative thoughts that lead to low self-esteem with positive affirmations and expectations. This can help open new ways to handle stress, improve relationships and increase motivation to try new things.

learn the facts

Facts About Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT was originally created to help people suffering from depression, but today it’s used to improve and manage various types of mental disorders and symptoms, including: anxiety, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, addictions and eating disorders.
CBT techniques are also beneficial for just about everyone else, including people with no form of mental illness but who have chronic stress, poor moods and habits they’d like to work on.
The term cognitive behavioural therapy is considered a general term for a classification of therapeutic approaches that have similarities, including: rational emotive behaviour therapy, rational behaviour therapy, rational living therapy, cognitive therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy.
To date, more than 332 medical studies and 16 quantitative reviews have examined the effects of CBT. Interestingly, more than 80 percent of these studies were conducted after 2004.
Studies have found that in people who have completed CBT programs and then undergone brain scans, CBT is actually capable of positively changing physical structures in the brain.
CBT can work quickly, helping patients feel better and experience lessened symptoms within a short period of time (several months, for example). While many forms of therapy can take many months or even years to become very helpful, the average number of CBT sessions clients receive is only 16.
CBT often involves the patient completing “homework” assignments on their own between therapy sessions, which is one of the reasons benefits can be experienced so quickly.
CBT is very interactive and collaborative.
One of the biggest advantages of CBT is that you can continue to work on exploring CBT concepts, using techniques you have learned, journaling and reading to help prolong benefits and manage symptoms.

the power to change

Law of entropy and impermanence

CBT rests on scientific assumptions, including the law of entropy, which is essentially the fact that “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” We always have the power to change how we feel because our feelings are rooted in our brains’ chemical interactions, which are constantly evolving. If we break cycles of thought patterns, our brains will adjust for the better. MRI scans show the human brain creates and sustains neural synapses (connections) between frequent thoughts and emotions, so if you practice positive thinking your brain will actually make it easier to feel happier in the future.
To develop a greater understanding of yourself, your strengths, and to find healthy ways of applying them within your life, making healthy changes.

let me help you

Here at Oak Tree Therapies, my aim

Is to work with you collaboratively to explore your strengths. My role as your therapist, is to encourage you to find the answers you seek, It means that I ultimately believe you know yourself best, and so, we work together to empower you to make the best decisions for you in keeping with the way you want to live your life.

My aim is to encourage you to feel more in control of yourself and your life….consider it a personal gift and investment for your future…

"Book in with Catrina"

Appointments

I will endeavour to provide weekly sessions (or at longer intervals if required). However, as sessions progress, they may become fortnightly, monthly, depending on the need at that time.

Each session will last 50 -1hr.

I would ask that should you need to cancel an appointment, please (if possible) provide 24hrs notice via the contact details provided above and we will arrange another suitable time/date/venue.

Each session costs £80 payable by cash/cheque/bank transfer/PayPal.