Cognitive behavioural therapy

What is CBT?

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you identify how your thinking affects how you feel and in terms of how you behave, and is an evidence-based therapy for eating disorders.

It is a way of talking about:

• How you think about yourself, the world, and other people.
• How what you do affects your thoughts and feelings.
• It focuses on the here and now problems and difficulties.
• Instead of focusing on the causes of your distress or symptoms in the past, it looks for ways to improve your state of mind now.

What are the benefits?

CBT changes how you think (cognitive) and what you do (behaviour).

You discover ways in which you think, the traps you fall into, and how to challenge yourself.

CBT is one of the most effective treatments for eating disorders and is a collaborative therapy.

What kinds of things can I expect?

You will have a session with a therapist around once a week. The course of treatment usually lasts between 5 and 20 sessions with each be around 1 hour long.

You can decide with your therapist your goals in accessing CBT.

Working with the therapist to break problems down into separate parts, such as thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions.

You may be asked to keep a diary. This will identify your individual patterns of thought, emotions, bodily feelings, and actions.

It is easy to talk about doing something, much harder to actually do it. After what needs to change has been identified, your therapist will recommend ‘homework’ so changes can be practiced in everyday life.

What happens now?

You will be invited for an initial assessment, where you and the cognitive behavioural therapist will discuss your needs and goals for getting better, and how you might work towards them.