Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy. It can help people who are experiencing a wide range of mental health difficulties. What people think can affect how they feel and how they behave. This is the basis of CBT. During times of distress, people think differently about themselves and what happens to them. Thoughts can become extreme and unhelpful. This can worsen how a person feels. They may then behave in a way that prolongs their distress.
CBT practitioners help each person to identify and change their extreme thinking and unhelpful behaviours. In doing this the result is often a major improvement in how a person feels and lives. One in four of us will have difficulties related to depression or anxiety at some point in our lives. CBT is recognised as the treatment of choice by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) for most depression and anxiety related problems.
