Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Factsheet for young
people
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
(CBT) is a psychological treatment, a “talking therapy”. It
aims to help you understand how your problems began and what keeps
them going. CBT works by helping you to link the way that you
think (your thoughts, beliefs and assumptions), with how you feel
(your emotions) and what you do (your behaviour).
There are many types of
treatment available to help with mental health problems in young
people. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has been found to
be effective in helping young people with a wide range of problems,
including:
- low self-esteem
- depression
- anxiety problems
- obsessive-compulsive
disorder
- disorders
- post–traumatic stress
disorder
For some young people, CBT
may be used as well as medication.
Why does CBT
help?
Our thoughts and emotions
often cause us problems. For example:
|
Situation: Your friend doesn’t ring
you
|
|
Unhelpful
thoughts
They don’t like me
Feeling
You feel sad
Physical
Feel sick
Action
You don’t go to your friend’s
party
|
Helpful
thoughts
Something is wrong
Feeling
Worried about your friend
Physical
You feel fine
Action
You ring – they had lost
their mobile
|
The key point is that
sometimes our thoughts are unhelpful and sometimes they are not
accurate. This pattern of thinking can lead to many problems.
The goal of CBT is to help
you learn a more balanced way of thinking and to change any
unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaving.
What will CBT do for
me?
CBT helps you understand the link between your
thoughts, emotions and behaviour. This is important because
sometimes, when you talk about things that are difficult, you may
feel worse to begin with. It teaches you skills:
- to overcome these problematic thoughts, emotions and
behaviour
- to find ways of overcoming negative thinking and challenging
unhelpful and inaccurate thoughts or beliefs.
CBT is not about thinking
more positively!
CBT helps the way you feel to improve what you
think and what you do.
By being able to approach situations in a more
balanced way, you will hopefully be more effective in solving your
problems and feel more in control of your life.
If I agree to take part in
CBT, what will I have to do?
If you are offered CBT, you
will be expected to meet with your therapist regularly. To
help your therapist to understand your difficulties, you will be
asked to complete some questionnaires or worksheets. These
may be repeated throughout your treatment. Your therapist
will monitor how you are getting on.
The therapist will help you
understand your problems and teach you ways of dealing with them.
You will be expected to practise them outside of your therapy (for
example, at school or college or at home). This means that
tasks or homework will be set at the end of the meeting. You
may be given worksheets to help remind you of what you need to
do.
Why do I have to do
homework?
Unfortunately, you cannot
learn to ride a bike by reading a book. Any skill you want to
learn requires practise.
CBT will help you learn:
- how to overcome negative
thoughts (she doesn’t like me)
- unhelpful behaviours (not
going to the party)
- difficult emotions (feeling
sad)
It is important to practise
the CBT skills you are taught for the following reasons:
- to be sure that you
understand them;
- to check that you can use
them when you need to (e.g. when you are feeling upset about
something);
- so that any problems you may
have in using these skills can be worked on in your therapy.
It’s not always easy to learn
new skills, so you will need lots of support from your therapist,
your family/carers.
Sources of further
information
Youth2Youth – the UK’s first
National Young Person’s helpline, run by young people, for young
people. You can contact them by email, for an online chat or by
telephone. http://www.youth2youth.co.uk/index.htm
References
Summary of cognitive
behavioural therapy interventions recommended by National Institute
of Clinical Excellence
Therapies, treatments and
medication: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: chapter by Dr Chris
Williams, The Mind: A User’s Guide, Bantam Press.
With grateful thanks to Dr
Clare Lamb from the Cedar Court Adolescent Unit in North Wales.
Series Editor: The Child and
Family Public Education Board chaired by Dr Margaret Bamforth.
© [August 2008] Royal College of Psychiatrists. This leaflet may
be downloaded, printed out, photocopied and distributed free of
charge as long as the Royal College of Psychiatrists is properly
credited and no profit is gained from its use. Permission to
reproduce it in any other way must be obtained from the Head of Publications. The College
does not allow reposting of its leaflets on other sites, but allows
them to be linked to directly.
For a catalogue of public education materials or copies of our
leaflets contact:
Leaflets Department
The Royal College of Psychiatrists
17 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PG
The Royal College of Psychiatritsts is a charity registered in
England and Wales (228636) and in Scotland (SC038369)
Please note that we are unable to offer advice on individual cases. Please see our FAQ for advice on getting help.
Please answer the following questions and press 'submit' to send your answers OR
E-mail your responses to dhart@rcpsych.ac.uk
On each line, click on the mark which most closely reflects how you feel about
the statement in the left hand column.
Your answers will help us to make this leaflet more useful - please try to rate
every item.
Did you look at this leaflet because you are a (maximum of 2 categories
please):
Age group (please tick correct box)