Cognitive behavioral therapy is an evidence based approach that helps. You understand the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It gives you practical tools to create meaningful, lasting change.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a structured, goal-oriented form of psychotherapy that helps you identify and change unhelpful patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior. By increasing awareness and building practical skills, CBT can help you manage challenges, reduce distress, and move toward a more fulfilling and meaningful life.
Understand
Identify unhelpful thought and behavior patterns.
Learn
Build practical skills and new perspectives.
Practice
Apply tools in real-life situations.
Create Change
Experience greater well-being and meaningful growth.
Identify Negative Thought Patterns
You’ll work with your therapist to recognize automatic thoughts and beliefs that may be contributing to your distress.
Challenge Unhelpful Thoughts
CBT teaches you how to evaluate the accuracy and helpfulness of your thoughts, replacing negative patterns with more constructive and realistic alternatives.
Behavioral Interventions
You’ll engage in activities that challenge unhelpful behaviors, which helps you build positive changes.
Problem Solving Skills
CBT equips you with practical strategies to address everyday problems and reduce stress.
CBT is effective for many concerns, including:
Cognitive behavioral therapy is generally considered a short-term, structured form of therapy, but there is no single number of sessions that is right for everyone. Some people may notice meaningful improvement within several sessions, while others benefit from treatment over several months or longer.
The length of CBT depends on factors such as the concerns being treated, their severity and complexity, treatment goals, and how consistently skills are practiced between sessions. Your therapist can work with you to develop a treatment plan and periodically evaluate whether therapy is helping you make progress toward your goals.
Yes. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most extensively researched forms of psychotherapy and has evidence supporting its use for a wide range of mental health concerns, including anxiety disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and insomnia.
CBT is not equally appropriate for every person or every concern, however. Effective treatment depends on identifying what is contributing to a person’s difficulties and selecting an approach that fits those needs. In some cases, a different form of therapy or a combination of treatment approaches may be more appropriate.
During CBT, you and your therapist work together to understand how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors may be contributing to the difficulties you are experiencing. Sessions often involve identifying patterns, developing new ways of responding to difficult situations, learning practical coping or problem-solving skills, and setting goals for change.
CBT also extends beyond the therapy session. Depending on your treatment plan, your therapist may encourage you to practice new skills, track patterns, complete exercises, or experiment with different behaviors between appointments. Applying what you learn in therapy to everyday life is an important part of creating lasting change.
Yes. CBT and therapies based on cognitive and behavioral principles are used to treat many concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma and PTSD, OCD, panic, phobias, sleep difficulties, stress, and chronic pain.
However, “CBT” encompasses a range of techniques, and treatment should be tailored to the specific problem. For example, treatment for OCD may incorporate exposure and response prevention (ERP), while evidence-based treatment for PTSD may involve approaches such as Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) or Prolonged Exposure (PE). A therapist should be able to explain why a particular treatment approach is appropriate for your symptoms and goals.
