Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy Toronto (CBT)

We offer cognitive-behavioural therapy to adults and young adults with concerns such as: depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic attacks and panic disorder, behaviour change, and low self-esteem, among others. Our CBT therapists are both Masters level practitioners with specific training in cognitive-behavioural therapy. Though CBT can be given as manualized treatment, our therapists are compassionate and supportive and get to know you and the presenting concern thoroughly, so that the CBT techniques they use will be meaningful and helpful.

About CBT approach and techniques:

The basic premise of CBT is that our thoughts influence our emotions. Thus, the goal of CBT is to change patterns of thinking and associated behaviours in order to improve mood and emotions. In line with the CBT model, your therapist will explore different troubling situations with you and discuss: your thoughts and images, physiological reactions, behaviours, and emotions for each situation. In the cognitive model, CBT imagines our thoughts as a tree. The trunk of the tree is made up of our “core beliefs”. These are our innate beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world. Some examples of core beliefs might include: "I am not good enough" , "the world is a dangerous place", or "other people don’t care about me". The branches of the tree are what CBT calls "intermediate beliefs". These tend to be your “rules for living”. For example: "if I don’t get close to people I can’t get hurt". Lastly, the leaves of the tree are our everyday “automatic thoughts". These are thoughts related to your core and intermediate beliefs that float through your head during the day. The tend to be quick, fleeting thoughts, for example:“I don’t think they like me”, or “that was a stupid thing to say”. Your therapist will then help you work on changing these cognitive processes and their associated behaviours. In addition to this basic premise of CBT, each presenting concern has specific techniques to help such as: diaphragmatic breathing, worry time, thought records, challenging automatic thoughts, identifying cognitive errors, schema change, behavioural activation, activity scheduling, grounding techniques, and response prevention, to name a few.