Growth Is Within Us.

Online and In-Person Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Cambridge.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in Cambridge, Ontario is an action-based form of therapy that focuses on helping you change the way you think and feel about particular situations. While its primary focus is on present or recent events in our lives, there are times when CBT forces us to evaluate the origins of our thought processes and how they’ve developed over time.

Oftentimes, we’re consumed by our own negative perceptions, and how we think certain events in our lives will play out. We then have difficulties seeing how things actually are. Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions are all interconnected and can sometimes lead to psychologically related challenges, such as – depression and anxiety. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a form of therapy that can help you acquire the skills you need to offset negative thoughts and evaluate situations from different perspectives.

What Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

As a structured therapeutic journey, CBT is meant to help you attain the tools you need to improve your mental health. By learning to approach certain life situations and how you feel about them in a constructive manner, you can also learn to react appropriately.

Life is full of difficult situations and there’s no getting around that. It’s how you perceive these situations and your attitude toward them that matters. Many people tend to feel anxious, angry, depressed, or inadequate if things don’t go as planned. While these are perfectly normal emotions, it is important to learn where to draw the line between allowing yourself to feel them and letting them take over your life.

How Does CBT Work?

CBT works by helping you identify the problems in your life, how you feel about them, and realize your potential to overcome these issues in a rational manner. Cognitive functions, and your perceptions of them can vary.

Conscious thoughts take place in our awareness as human beings, while having an impact on our perceptions. Automatic thoughts are the opposite. They’re more instinctive and reactionary. Automatic thoughts are your uninhibited and unfiltered reactions about a certain situation. They can cause you to lose your sense of perception and reality, as you start to build up a negative narrative in your mind based on things that haven’t happened. They’re often driven by fear and anxiety.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is meant to help you navigate through these thoughts. Homework in-between sessions provides you an opportunity to put everything you have learned in therapy and apply it to real-life situations.

CBT usually lasts for about 8 to 20 sessions, but the length and results of therapy can vary depending on your specific needs and the complexities of the difficulties you’re facing. Some people may need more or less time to adapt their way of thinking.

Who Can Benefit From CBT?

Those who can benefit from CBT as a form of therapeutic assistance extends to numerous mental health related challenges. Typically, CBT is most commonly used to treat clients with the following difficulties:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Bipolar disorder
• Eating disorders
• Substance abuse problems
• Phobias
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Psychosis
• Panic disorder

CBT treatments don’t necessarily train the mind to push out or avoid negative thoughts altogether; actually, this treatment method is simply meant to help you evaluate situations as they actually are, not just how you personally perceive them to be. This is an important distinction for a lot of people who suffer from various types of anxiety and depression disorders.

CBT is most commonly used to treat people with anxiety and mild forms of depression as it provides them with the ability to evaluate situations in their lives objectively and as truthfully as possible.

Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Effective?

The question isn’t whether or not CBT is effective. Rather, it is important to what degree CBT is effective. The answer is that every individual is different and has a unique thought process that can contribute to their general way of perceiving the world.

CBT helps you address and understand those differences that can contribute to your thought process and belief system that lead to the challenges you are facing. As long as you continue to do the hard work that’s required and implement everything you learn into practice, the success rate for CBT is extremely high.

Can CBT Help Me?

Admitting that you might need help and then seeking it out is the first step towards achieving your goals for a better and healthier life. I firmly believe that through the right treatment, you have the strength to improve your mental health.

How Growth Counselling Services Can Help.

Growth Counselling Services counsellors are licensed and registered by the appropriate College/regulatory body(s) that ensures you, as the client, are provided with a safe, ethical, and qualified counselling experience. Additionally, assisting you in coming to terms with your experienced difficulties and learning how to express them in a healthy manner that helps you lead a full and values directed life is the goal.

Contact us directly at Growth Counselling Services if you’re interested in learning more about mindful and values-driven living.