The term ‘Cognitive’ is a scientific term for
thought or thinking. ‘Behavioural’ means
the things we do, so the name means
‘thinking and doing therapy’. CBT aims to
help people change patterns of thinking
and behaviour that are causing problems.
Changing how you think and behave also
changes how you feel. It is a structured
approach – you agree goals with your
therapist and try things out between
sessions.
More research has been done on cognitive
behaviour therapy than on other therapies
and it has been shown to work for a
variety of mental health problems. CBT is
an approach based on scientific research
evidence. This means that CBT is only
offered for the treatment of problems that
have been shown to improve with CBT in
published research trials.