What is CBT?
CBT is an umbrella term for various therapies that are goal-oriented, collaborative, short-term, and skills focused. Your therapist will first meet with you for an initial intake appointment to discuss your needs. They will then give you feedback and work collaboratively with you to discuss a therapy plan to help you meet your goals. In this type of therapy you are actively involved in your recovery. CBT teaches skills that can be useful throughout life. Therapy includes in-session and between-session practice of skills.
CBT therapies include: Exposure Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) , Habit-reversal training (HRT), Mindfulness-based practices, Trauma Processing Therapies, and Motivational Interviewing (MI) among others. Learn more about some of these therapies below.
Exposure Based Therapies
The most effective way to overcome fear is to face it. With fear, we often tend to avoid situations, objects or activities that trigger anxiety. Avoiding can feel like it helps in the short term, however, it will only allow anxiety to linger on and can produce unhelpful patterns of behavior. Exposure therapies help break these patterns of avoidance and fear. You will learn to tolerate your fear through safe “exposures” to feared situations. Exposure therapy is scientifically demonstrated to help with a range of fears and phobias.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (pronounced as the word “Act”) uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, together with commitment and behavioral change. ACT helps individuals develop acceptance of unwanted thoughts, feelings or experiences. From there ACT encourages ways to cultivate a commitment to act toward living life in line with one’s values. Individuals benefit from this approach as it helps increase psychological flexibility and can lead to a greater capacity to adapt/cope with life’s demands.
Exposure & Response Prevention
Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold standard, evidence-based treatment for OCD. “Exposure” refers to allowing the experience of thoughts, images, objects and situations that drive fear. “Response prevention” (or ritual prevention) means refraining from engaging with compulsive behaviors. ERP encourages an active and intentional choice to confront one’s fears to live a happier more flexible life.
Mindfulness Training
Mindfulness involves conscious awareness and attention to the present moment without judgment. Through purposeful practice, one can build attention to the present moment experience. Mindfulness teaches a willingness to feel a range of emotions.
Evidence-Based Trauma Treatments
Evidence-based trauma treatments include stabilization and trauma processing. In stabilization (or skills-training) one works to build a toolkit of strategies to cope with a range of trauma reactions. In trauma processing therapy one actively engages in revisiting past traumas in a safe and methodical way. The two trauma processing treatments we provide are: Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE). You and your therapist will discuss the appropriateness of trauma processing or skills-training based on your needs.