What Problems can Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Help with?

What Issues can Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Help with?

In this article about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), we look in more detail at the kinds of problems it helps with.  In the previous article, we discussed how CBT works and what a typical session involves. Next, we’ll explore options for how to stay well between appointments.

Here at Newcastle Psychologist & Counselling, we offer CBT for children, adults and families experiencing from a range of problems (including depression, anxiety, OCD, worry, trauma, and anger management as well as specialist CBT for Insomnia).

Our team of experienced psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists all use elements of CBT when working with you or your loved ones at both our Gosforth and Jesmond clinics.

Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety is normal, though can feel unpleasant, for many people.  Anxiety involves worrying about things that are going to happen, either immediately or in the future. 

However, if anxiety is a regular occurrence, lasts for a long time, impacts on daily life or is out of proportion to the situation, then it’s a problem.

Depression is seen as long-term low mood, sadness or feeling down and in its most severe form can cause suicidal thoughts. It can be overwhelming and people suffering from depression might struggle to cope with day to day life or activities, especially if their depression is severe.

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) helps those suffering from depression and/or anxiety (whether due to worry, obsessions, or trauma) to challenge their thoughts and provide them with tools they can use every time they feel bad.

CBT can be used as an approach by itself, or even if you are currently taking medication, and the results can be positive and long-lasting.

Bipolar Depression

Bipolar depression is seen as drastic changes in mood (often moving between overenergetic and impulsive phases and periods of depression) which have a massive impact on daily life.

Moods can go from high (manic or hypermanic) and feeling invincible, to depressive episodes (low mood). Some people also experience hearing voices or seeing things that others can’t (hallucinations) in both states.

Manic and depressive episodes can last for any period of time.  Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is particularly helpful in overcoming the symptoms of the depressive phase, and for minimising the impact of hyper or “manic” phases.

We are also able to work in a structured way to help you reduce the chance of relapse, and minimising triggers.

Anger Management

While anger is a normal emotion, if you’re struggling to control your responses, then it can affect your relationships, work situation and even your own health (whether through injuring yourself or by causing excess stress).

As well as feelings of frustration, annoyance and impatience, physical signs of anger such as bodily tension, rapid breathing or increased heart rate can also occur,.

Anger can be connected to anxiety and fear, or a sign that you hold rigid beliefs or expectations about yourself, the world and/or other people.  Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy helps you understand why you feel the way you do, and to manage your anger through developing a range of different responses when anger occurs.

Trauma and PTSD

Trauma can all affect our day to day wellbeing, performance at work and damage relationships. 

Over the years, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has been shown to be the gold standard for psychological treatment of trauma (whether related to childhood or more recent) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

CBT for Trauma focuses on helping you move on from the traumatic event and stop the repeated thoughts, memories and reliving fo the incident, as well as the anxiety and sometimes nightmares that can occur.

Sessions with our experienced psychologists, counsellors and psychoherapists at Newcastle Psychologist & Counselling can help you process your trauma and learn coping strategies to help you move forward in spite of what has happened.

Chronic Pain

Chronic pain can affect your everyday life, and there’s more to it than physical symptoms – pain is the result of nerves and neurones firing in a certain pattern though it is up to the brain to make sense of it and interpret this as pain. 

Even if the pain is persistent and/or a biological cause can’t be identified, there are psychological ways of managing pain so that the impact (and often the sensation and focus) so that the perception of pain is reduced.

While Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy can’t cure the pain at the biological level, CBT for Pain Management can help you cope through teaching various relaxation strategies, ways to overcome negative thoughts, and help you enjoy life in a way that minimises pain. 

Many of our clients suffering from pain report a reduction in pain following their work with us.

Insomnia and Sleep Disorders

Dr Stuart Sadler (Chartered Clinical Psycholoigst) is one of the few psychologists in the UK to be training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) and sleep problems. 

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia is a specific form of CBT which is focused on helping people overcome insomnia, nightmares and early/night-time waking.

Depending on your sleep problem, therapy might look at whether techniques such as sleep rescheduling, stimulus control, or sleep hygiene might be helpful. 

We can also assess whether your daytime or night-time (“wind down”) routines are conducive for your best sleep and looks at how to optimise your sleep so you can function at your best the next day.

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in Newcastle at Newcastle Psychologist & Counselling

At Newcastle Psychologist & Counselling, our team are able to offer highly specialised Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for a variety of problems and help you or your loved ones overcome a range of difficulties.

Sessions are available via face to face appointment at our clinics in Jesmond or Gosforth, or online via Skype, Facetime and Zoom.

If you experience any of the above, or wish to contact us about a problem not mentioned in this post, contact me using the message box below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.