Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a therapeutic intervention that can help you to understand and overcome problems to do with low mood and/or anxiety. Many young people struggle with their mental health sometimes and there is lots of evidence and research (NICE Guidance) that shows CBT helps young people to feel better.

CBT focuses on your thoughts, feelings and behaviours (what you do). It works on the idea they are all linked together and have an impact on each other; positive and negative. When you are feeling anxious and/or low in mood, you can get stuck in a cycle of negative or unhelpful thoughts, feelings and behaviours. By using specific models in CBT, we can help you to break that cycle and help you to challenge your thoughts and change behaviours so that you start to feel better.

Specific models in CBT can be used to help young people who may be struggling with some of the following problems: Social anxiety, Generalised anxiety/worry, Low mood/depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Specific phobias, Trauma/ PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), Separation Anxiety, Health Anxiety. It can also help with a variety of other mental health problems.

CBT sessions usually take place once a week and at the beginning you will develop a joint understanding (Specific Formulation) with your therapist that will help to understand your problem individually to you and set goals to work towards in treatment.

Your CBT therapist will help to you to challenge negative thoughts and behaviours and together you will learn new skills and develop strategies to help you understand your problem and what you can do to feel better.

It is really important in CBT to practice your new skills in between sessions and you will agree tasks to carry out each week.