CBT Counselling in Langley
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in Langley
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy from my office in Walnut Grove, with virtual appointments available throughout British Columbia.
What Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a structured form of psychotherapy that helps you identify and change patterns of thinking and behaviour that may be contributing to emotional distress.
CBT is based on the idea that what you think, how you feel and what you do are all connected. Something happens and you interpret what it means. That interpretation affects how you feel, and how you feel influences what you do next.
Thoughts have a way of appearing automatically, before you have a chance to fully understand what is happening. Those thoughts are shaped by your prior experiences and by broader beliefs you have developed about yourself, other people and how the world works. They can become unconscious scripts running in the background without asking for permission.
For example, suppose your partner doesn't respond to a text message. You could think they are busy and continue with your day. You could conclude they are angry with you and begin worrying about what you have done to upset your partner. Or you could become convinced that something is seriously wrong, worrying that they got into a car accident. The unanswered message is what happened. The meaning you attach to it is the script running. CBT helps you separate the two.
Sometimes these patterns are relatively easy to recognize. You might catastrophize, jumping from a difficult situation to its worst possible outcome. You might overgeneralize, allowing one experience to become evidence that something “always” or “never” happens. At other times, the assumptions are so familiar that they may feel like facts.
Your behaviour can become part of the pattern as well. If you believe a situation will go badly, you may avoid it. Avoiding it may make you feel better temporarily, but it also means you never have the opportunity to discover whether your prediction was right or whether you could have handled the situation. Over time, thoughts, emotions and behaviours can reinforce one another and develop into patterns that repeat themselves.
The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Cycle
How CBT Works
CBT is a collaborative process where we work together to identify the patterns of thinking and behaviour that may be contributing to what you are experiencing. We work to understand how those patterns are operating in your life and determine where they can be changed.
The first step is learning to recognize the thoughts that are happening automatically. Once you notice the script running in the background, you can begin examining it. From there, we look at what you do in response. You may avoid situations that make you anxious, withdraw when you feel depressed, react quickly when you feel angry or rely on a familiar behaviour to manage distress. Those responses may make sense in the moment, particularly when they provide immediate relief, but they can also reinforce the patterns that are causing problems.
Changing the pattern may involve changing how you think, what you do or both. You might practise approaching something you normally avoid or prepare for a difficult conversation through role-playing. You may test an assumption against what actually happens, develop a different way of solving a problem or learn skills for managing difficult thoughts and emotions.
While your history can be important in understanding how some of these patterns developed, CBT places emphasis on what is happening in your life right now and what you can do moving forward. Some of the work happens during counselling sessions, while some may happen between appointments as you practise new skills and responses in the situations where you actually need them.
The goal of CBT is to improve your ability to function in everyday life. The aim is to develop skills you can eventually use independently: evaluating a thought before believing it, approaching something you previously avoided, solving a problem differently or recognizing when an old pattern is beginning to reappear.
What CBT Treats
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can be used to address a wide range of psychological, behavioural and emotional concerns. CBT has been used in the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression and dysthymia, substance use disorders, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, somatoform disorders, eating disorders, insomnia, personality disorders, anger and aggression, general stress, chronic pain and fatigue, distress associated with medical conditions and some forms of problematic or criminal behaviour.
You do not need to have a diagnosed mental health condition to benefit from CBT. It can also be used to help people manage stressful situations, change patterns of thinking or behaviour that are creating problems, develop coping skills and function more effectively in everyday life.
In my practice, some of the areas where I may use CBT include:
Anxiety
Anxiety can turn predictions into apparent facts and encourage behaviours such as avoidance, reassurance-seeking or continual preparation. CBT can help you examine anxious predictions, change patterns that reinforce them and develop greater confidence in your ability to cope with uncertainty.
Learn more about Anxiety Counselling →Depression
Depression can influence how you interpret yourself, your circumstances and your future while also making it harder to engage in activities that might improve how you feel. CBT can address both sides of that cycle by examining patterns of thinking and gradually changing patterns of behaviour.
Learn more about Depression Counselling →Anger
The interpretation you make of an event can influence the intensity of the anger that follows and what you do with it. CBT can help you recognize those interpretations, examine established patterns and create more room between feeling angry and deciding how to respond.
Learn more about Anger Counselling →Addiction
Substance use can become connected to particular thoughts, emotions, situations and learned behaviours. CBT can help you recognize those patterns, anticipate situations in which you are more likely to use and develop other ways of responding to triggers and distress.
Learn more about Addiction Counselling →Trauma & Injury
Following a traumatic experience or injury, thoughts about danger, safety, vulnerability or your own capabilities can continue affecting your behaviour long after the original event. CBT may be used to address some of these patterns as part of treatment, depending on your experience and treatment needs.
Learn more about Trauma & Injury Counselling →Personal Development & Personal Growth
You don't need to have a mental health condition to benefit from CBT. The same process of examining assumptions, experimenting with behaviour and developing new skills can be useful when you want to become more confident, communicate more effectively, handle stress differently or expand what you believe you are capable of doing.
Learn more about Personal Development & Personal Growth →Who Can Benefit From CBT?
CBT can be adapted to different people, circumstances and counselling goals. I may draw from CBT when working with individuals, men, couples and families, people navigating separation or divorce, and clients accessing counselling through an Employee Assistance Program.
The way I use it depends on the person in front of me. A technique that is useful for someone dealing with anxiety may have a very different purpose for someone working on communication, anger, a relationship or personal development.
Other Ways I Help
CBT is one of several therapeutic approaches I use. No single modality is the right fit for every person or every problem, and treatment does not necessarily need to remain within the boundaries of one approach.
Depending on what brings you to counselling and what we are trying to accomplish, I may also draw from:
Is CBT Right for Me?
You do not need to decide which type of therapy you need before coming to counselling. Part of my role is to understand what you are experiencing, what you would like to change and which approach may be useful in helping you get there.
For some people, CBT may form the primary approach to treatment. For others, I may use elements of CBT alongside other therapeutic approaches. The treatment starts with the person, not the modality.
Frequently Asked Questions About CBT
No. You don’t need to choose a therapeutic approach before coming to counselling. We can discuss what you are experiencing, what you would like to change and whether CBT or another approach may be appropriate for your goals.
No. CBT is not about convincing yourself that everything is fine or replacing an unpleasant thought with a pleasant one. It involves examining how you are interpreting a situation, determining whether that interpretation is accurate or useful and recognizing how your thoughts and behaviours may be contributing to what happens next.
It can. Some CBT work may happen between counselling sessions as you practise a skill, notice patterns, record thoughts or try a different response in everyday life. What that looks like depends on what you are working on and the goals of treatment.
CBT primarily focuses on what is happening in your life now and what you can change moving forward. Your history can still be important, particularly when it helps explain how certain beliefs, expectations or patterns developed.
The length of counselling depends on what you are working on, your goals, the complexity of the problem and how you respond to treatment. We can discuss your progress as counselling continues and adjust the treatment plan when needed.
Yes. CBT does not necessarily have to be used on its own. Depending on your needs and treatment goals, I may incorporate CBT alongside other therapeutic approaches.
Yes. I offer in-person counselling from my office in Walnut Grove, Langley, as well as virtual appointments for clients throughout British Columbia.