CBT is an intensive, short-term, problem-oriented approach. It was designed to be quick, practical and goal-oriented and to provide people with long-term skills to keep them healthy. The focus of cbt is on the problems that come up in a person’s day-to-day life. cbt helps people to look at how they interpret and evaluate what is happening around them and the effects these perceptions have on their emotional experience.

Childhood experiences and events, while not the focus of cbt, may also be reviewed. This review can help people to understand and address emotional upset that emerged early in life, and to learn how these experiences may influence current responses to events

According to cbt, the way people feel is linked to the way they think about a situation and not simply to the nature of the situation itself

In cbt, you learn to identify, question and change the thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions related to your problematic emotional and behavioural reactions to certain kinds of situations.

By monitoring and recording your thoughts during situations that lead to emotional upset, you learn that the way you think can contribute to emotional problems such as depression and anxiety. In cbt, you learn to reduce these emotional problems by: • identifying distortions in your thinking • seeing thoughts as ideas about what is going on rather than as facts • “standing back” from your thinking to consider situations from different viewpoints

For cbt to be effective, you must be open and willing to discuss your thoughts, beliefs and behaviours and to participate in exercises during sessions. For best results, you must also be willing to do homework between sessions.

CBT is an effective treatment for many psychological conditions. These include: • mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar disorder • anxiety disorders, including specific phobias (fear of animals, heights, enclosed spaces), panic disorder, social phobia (social anxiety disorder), generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder • bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder • body dysmorphic disorder (body image) • substance use disorders ( smoking, alcohol and other drugs).