Introduction to CBT Techniques

Workshop Description:

CBT – or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – is often considered the “gold standard” of psychotherapy and counselling, and is core to the NICE guidelines to treating a range of mental health conditions, including depression. The focus in CBT on challenging core beliefs and irrational thinking, and promoting a commitment to new behaviours, has been found to be helpful to a significant proportion of those who come to us with mental health struggles. But the focus within CBT on treatment being time-limited,structured and skills-based leaves some non-CBT therapists cold. Is CBT just a short-term plaster, providing limited symptom reduction alone? This training course sheds light on the reality behind CBT, and shows you how you can incorporate practical, evidence-based CBT principles and techniques into your work,regardless of whether or not you are a CBT-trained practitioner.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1.    Describe the different contributions of behavioural therapy, cognitive therapy and the “third-wave” CBT therapies like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Therapy – and recognise how they all contribute to the “CBT Triangle” on which treatment is based.

2.    Understand the principles that underlie CBT, and implement practical, evidence-based CBT techniques such as the thought journal, the “downward arrow” technique, the "magic dial" technique, in a way that is consistent with those CBT principles and our understanding of irrational thinking and cognitive distortions.

3.    Integrate those CBT techniques within a broader framework of what works in therapy, and the five core principles of effective therapy – doing so in a way that is consistent with participants’ personal practice and training.

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