To consider if Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) right for you, we have talked about what you want from therapy and if the CBT model makes sense to you. In this post we’ll look at the CBT Structure.

Working Together

As described above, the aim of CBT is that you can make those changes which help you improve your life. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a joint endeavour towards this aim. The therapist is not the expert who interprets your experience or will ‘fix’ things for you or tell you what to do. Instead, we work together on addressing your difficulties. You bring your knowledge of yourself and your life to this; we bring our knowledge and experience of how CBT can help.

Session Structure:

We want to make sure that we make progress towards your goals, so we organise the time we have in a particular way. – At the beginning of each session we will agree how we want to use the time. This is called ‘setting an agenda’. Of course, sometimes things emerge in session which may need to take priority, and we change our plan. As therapy progresses, your experience with the tasks in between sessions will be an increasingly important part of therapy, so over time you will set more and more of the ‘agenda’.

Feedback

At the end of each session, you will have an opportunity to reflect on what you take away, and to give feedback on your experience. This is so we can both be clear about what is, and is not so, helpful for you. After an initial meeting we typically arrange about six sessions at a time before we review how therapy is going and then agree on further sessions. In the reviews we will gauge how much progress we have made towards the goals you set yourself. We will most likely also repeat some questionnaires about mood and anxiety and the impact of the problems. When appropriate we plan the ending of therapy, often with some follow-up appointments after the end or regular sessions.

Time-limited Therapy

Therapy is time limited because the idea is that over time you gain new insights, skills and strategies which help you resolve or manage the problems you seek help for. So, you move towards ‘becoming your own therapist’. As mentioned above this is likely to require you to put some time aside in between sessions, for example for reading or keeping diaries or trying out new ways of doing things and practising what you have learned in therapy. Typically, CBT will take 12 – 24 sessions but this can vary depending on your needs and circumstances.

In summary, CBT is a structured form of therapy. If you prefer a more open-ended style overall and in each session, CBT might not feel so comfortable for you. If on the other hand, you want therapy to focus on the changes you seek in your life and you are happy to work towards these with your therapist, CBT can really help you do this.