Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a form of talking therapy that looks at:

• How you think about yourself, the world and other people
• How what you do affects your thoughts and feelings

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy can help you change how you think (Cognitive) and what you do (Behaviour).

These changes can help you to feel better.

Therefore, put simply, CBT works with thoughts, feelings and behaviour as a way of understanding and positively influencing factors that may be triggering problems and then keeping them going.

Other relevant factors include:

• The Environment - what is going on around you
• Your Biology – what is happening in your body when faced with problem situations.

The significance of the relationship between these factors can be demonstrated through a simple diagram:

As you can see, the factors above can combine to create a vicious circle that perpetuates a problem. This may be even more clearly illustrated through an actual example so:

This example highlights how the way we feel about events is directly affected by how we think and respond to what is happening around us. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy teaches both the awareness of this process and also the skills needed to positively change it.