CBT focuses on helping a person achieve their goals, act upon their values and improve their quality of life. The therapy is broad church and includes, for example, compassion focussed therapy, imagery rescripting and EMDR.

Like any learning process, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy takes time, courage, and, most importantly, practice to work.

The first step is always to understand the processes that maintain the problem. For example, if you have anxiety disorder, you may find it difficult to tolerate uncertainty. You may find yourself frequently checking and seeking reassurance. These processes tend to reduce your confidence and maintain your anxiety by seeking out more information that may be conflicting or ambiguous.

CBT’s next step is to test out whether your need for certainty is making the problem worse. You will be encouraged to test out your predictions and to tolerate feelings of anxiety. CBT therapists can act as a guide and supporter, but much like seeing a physiotherapist, you must do the work of testing out your predictions and tolerating the feelings of anxiety and sadness.