Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
My name is Lynne Cole, a fully qualified and licensed Cognitive Behavioural Therapist in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
I have decades of experience using CBT to help people deal with and recover from a range of mental health problems. Here’s just a few of my qualifications that enable me to use CBT effectively to help people:
- Licensed Practitioner of NLP
- ACT Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Advanced Diploma of Professional Stress Management
- YHT Diploma of Clinical Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy
- Diploma of Higher Education in Counselling
- CPCAB Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling
- Diploma in Smoking Cessation Therapy from the College of Integrated Therapies
What Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, is a form of talk therapy used to help a variety of conditions, such as mental illness, trauma, or the emotional effects of physical infirmity. The core principle of CBT is the idea that psychological problems are caused or worsened by faulty thinking patterns and learned behaviours. Thus, changing the thought patterns and behaviours can improve psychological health. CBT can both control the symptoms of psychological conditions and work on processing the root causes. It can be used as a form of trauma therapy.
No Obligation Counselling Consultations
It’s very important that you feel comfortable and relaxed with your therapist and that is why I offer all new clients a free no-obligation telephone consultation.
I find that most of my clients are very keen to get started right away. If, however, you are not sure whether you wish to proceed at this point, then you are of course under no obligation to continue.
Who can benefit from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Many different demographics have reported success with CBT in helping with a wide variety of different conditions. In some cases it can quickly replace medication, which is useful for people for whom medication isn’t a good option. CBT is suited for patients of all ages, including young children, and can be combined with other therapeutic methods easily.
That said, CBT might not be the best option for people with conditions such as autism, which can result in difficulty recognising emotions and challenging rigid thought patterns. If it doesn’t appear to be helping, try something else. For most people, however, it can be very helpful.
About Lynne
In my practice I support people who feel a wide range of emotions: fear, sadness, doubt, overwhelmed, trapped by self-criticism, negative perceptions and or disruptive patterns.
I have a particular interest in helping people reduce anxiety as well as people who are navigating what it means to be themselves in several areas of their life.
Whatever you’re struggling with, I’m here to help you.
Does Cognitive Behavioural Therapy work for anxiety?
CBT is one of the most effective ways to help anxiety. It can help to break the pattern of ruminating on frightening thoughts and replace them with calming ones, and is a useful way to identify trigger situations. With CBT, anxiety can be replaced with motivation and you will no longer feel a need to avoid situations that make you nervous, but will instead see them as exciting challenges.
CBT is useful for depression for similar reasons as anxiety; it helps you to replace distressing thoughts with more positive ones. Depression often involves ruminating on fears and feelings of sadness and unworthiness, and CBT can help you to stop obsessing over these. It is also often hard for people with depression to motivate themselves and take actions which would put them in a better place, which would reduce the depression. CBT can help you come up with the motivation and push yourself to make needed changes.
What is an example of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Let’s say you have a phobia of flying in a plane. This doesn’t come up often, but now you have to fly in a plane for an important business trip.
When you find out, your mind is filled with thoughts about how dangerous planes are, and you panic. A CBT therapist can help you to pick apart these thought patterns and find ways to reduce their impact.
For example, if your thought is “I am afraid the plane will crash”, you can replace that with thoughts about how planes crash far less often than cars do, even when taking into account that people drive much more often than they fly, and these days most people survive a crashing plane because safety standards are so high.
If your thought is “I am afraid of heights in general”, the therapist might suggest you go to some safe high places, like looking out the window of a tall building’s upper floor, to practise identifying and controlling your fearful thoughts.
With repetition, your more helpful thoughts will become automatic and replace the fears entirely. This can easily be done quickly enough for you to be fine on your plane journey.
That said, CBT might not be the best option for people with conditions such as autism, which can result in difficulty recognising emotions and challenging rigid thought patterns. If it doesn’t appear to be helping, try something else. For most people, however, it can be very helpful.
Get In Touch
Reach out to me with a brief explanation of why you are looking for therapy or counselling, and I’ll respond as soon as I can.