All About CBT for Anxiety, How it Works and What’s Involved

About CBT for Anxiety

Our CBT for Anxiety course is highly effective for overcoming the emotional distress that you experience when you have this problem.

Anxiety is what you experience when you percieve the presence of a threat which may be real or imagined.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy was developed by Aaron Beck in the 1960’s who recognised that people’s inner-thoughts were often more significant than the things that they said out loud during therapy sessions.

He called these inner-thoughts cognition and argued that the way that people think about their experiences links directly to the emotions that they feel.

These ideas form the central concept of CBT which states that:

The way that you think determines the way that you feel.

Therefore, your emotional experiences are the outcomes of what you think and believe rather than being caused by the things that are happening around you.

Common Anxiety Symptoms

• Excessive worry or fear: Feeling worried or fearful about things that are not necessarily threatening or are unlikely to happen.
• Restlessness or irritability: Feeling agitated or easily annoyed.
• Muscle tension: Tensing your muscles or experiencing muscle aches due to the tension.
• Difficulty concentrating: Finding it hard to focus on tasks or maintain attention.
• Sleep problems: Having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, or experiencing restless, unsatisfying sleep.
• Panic attacks: Sudden feelings of intense fear or discomfort that can include physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, and shaking.
• Avoidance behaviors: Avoiding situations or activities that trigger anxiety or make it worse.
• Obsessive-compulsive behaviours: Repeatedly performing certain actions or rituals to alleviate anxiety, even though they may not make logical sense.
• Social anxiety: Feeling anxious or self-conscious in social situations or around others.

You may have some or all of these symptoms, but it is important to remember that you may feel anxious in different ways to other people because of the subjective nature of human experiences.

You can take the standard GAD-7 Anxiety Test here.

How does CBT for Anxiety work?

Normally a programme of CBT for Anxiety takes place over a period of 10 to 20 weeks with an hour long session once per week.

CBT addresses Anxiety problems in three phases:

Firstly, because the way you think about your day-to-day experiences is determined by your core beliefs, the early sessions of CBT for Anxiety involve exploring and measuring these beliefs.

Secondly, once you are able to uncover your core beliefs, your thoughts about certain experiences will make more sense.

Thirdly, by understanding how you have made sense of your experiences in the past you can then begin to make changes to your thoughts and beliefs in order to create new, and more useful, emotional outcomes.

CBT for Anxiety builds upon the 5 core CBT principles developed by Aaron Beck and are used extensively in our CORE Programme.

How many sessions of CBT will I need?

Whilst this is a difficult question to be precise about, you should be able to address your Anxiety problems in around 10-20 sessions.

However, because CBT for Anxiety is always tailored to your own individual needs and circumstances, getting the outcome that you want may sometimes require more sessions.

If you have been suffering Anxiety problems for many years then in all likelihood, you can reasonably expect to take a bit longer to get where you want to be.

Our CBT for Anxiety programme is based on 12 sessions delivered over 12 weeks.

The programme uses an online learning platform to help you develop greater self-awareness and knowledge in the days between sessions.

The Behaviour Change Framework

All of our anxiety counselling sessions and programmes use the Behaviour Change Framework (BCF).

This scientifically proven protocol defines the stages of behaviour change that you need to go through in order to achieve long lasting and sustainable change.

The framework provides a roadmap that indicates if more change is required before entering the next phase of mental health therapy.

In this way, we are able to ensure that you get the best possible level of support in overcoming your mental health problems as well preventing early termination of therapy.

You can read more about the Science of Change here.

Arrange your FREE initial consultation here.

If you’d like to find out more about CBT for anxiety or recovering from any of your mental health problems then why not arrange a free initial consultation with us.

During this consultation we will discuss your particular issues and the different types of mental health counselling we offer (including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – CBT) without you having to commit to any counselling going forward.

The consultation lasts around 50 minutes and is a great opportunity to meet with either Paul or Joan and decide if you would like to proceed with any support.