If CBT is recommended, you'll usually have a session with your therapist once a week or once every fortnight. A typical course of treatment usually lasts for between 8 and 20 sessions, with each session lasting 50 minutes.

 

Therapy begins with an in-depth assessment which is usually spread over one or two sessions in order build a shared understanding with your therapist of the development and maintenance of your problem. During the sessions, you'll work with your therapist to break down your problems into their separate parts – such as your thoughts, physical symptoms, feelings and actions/behaviours. Together with your therapist you will analyse these areas to work out if they're unrealistic or unhelpful and to determine the effect they have on each other and on you. Your therapist will then be able to help you work out how to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviours.

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After working out what you can change, your therapist will help you learn skills and techniques which you will practise during the session and also between sessions as a home task. You'll discuss how you got on with the task at the next session. 

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The aim of therapy is to teach you to become your own therapist so that you continue to apply the skills you've learnt during treatment after your course of treatment finishes.

 

National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) provides independent, evidence-based guidance for the NHS on the most effective ways to treat disease and ill health. NICE recommends CBT in the treatment of the following conditions: 

• anxiety disorders (including generalised anxiety, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder)

• depression

• obsessive compulsive disorder.

 

There is also good evidence that CBT is helpful in treating many other conditions, including:

• phobias

• chronic fatigue

• eating disorders

• anxiety disorders in children

• chronic pain

• physical symptoms without a medical diagnosis

• sleep difficulties

 

Weekday sessions are priced at £75 per session, payable at each session. Evening sessions are available for £90 per session.

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Compassion Focused Therapy

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Compassion focused therapy (CFT) is a system of psychotherapy that helps people to develop and work with experiences of inner warmth, safeness and soothing, via compassion and self-compassion. The central therapeutic technique of CFT is compassionate mind training, which teaches the skills and attributes of compassion. The theoretical backbone of CFT is biological evolution. Humans have evolved with at least three emotion regulation systems: the threat (protection) system, the drive (resource-seeking) system, and the soothing system. CFT emphasises the links between cognitive patterns and these three emotion regulation systems. Through the use of CFT skills and techniques, clients can learn to manage each system more effectively and respond more appropriately to situations, resulting in improved mood.

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Compassion focused therapy is particularly helpful for people who have high levels of shame and self-criticism and who have difficulty in feeling warmth toward, and being kind to themselves or others. These difficulties are often rooted in a history of abuse, bullying, neglect and/or lack of affection in the family. CFT can help such people learn to feel more safeness and warmth in their interactions with others and themselves.

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If CFT is recommended, you'll usually have a session with your therapist once a week or once every fortnight. A typical course of treatment usually lasts for between 10 and 20 sessions, with each session lasting 50 minutes. Therapy begins with an in-depth assessment which is usually spread over one or two sessions in order build a shared understanding with your therapist of the development and maintenance of your problem. The aim of therapy is to teach you to become your own therapist so that you continue to apply the skills you've learnt during treatment after your course of treatment finishes.

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Weekday sessions are priced at £75 per session, payable at each session. Evening sessions are available for £90 per session.

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Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

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Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is an approach to psychotherapy based on solution-building rather than problem-solving. Rather than focusing on perceived shortcomings and weaknesses SFBT focuses on your strengths and possibilities to help you move forward,  identifying your goals and generating a detailed description of your preferred future.

 

Problems do not happen all of the time. Even the most chronic problems have periods of time when the difficulties are absent or they are less intense. By exploring these times, bringing small success into awareness and repeating the successful things you do when the problem is less severe, you can improve your life and become more confident about yourself. In order to generate effective solutions to your problem, the therapist explores your life experiences for "exceptions", times when some aspect of the your goal was already happening to some degree, During therapy, you are asked to picture your preferred future by describing what your life will be like when the problem is either gone or being managed in a way that it is no longer considered to be a problem.. The therapist then helps you to pay close attention to any behaviours that you can engage in in order to contribute to moving in the direction of your goal, whether these are small increments or larger changes. In addition to being asked about exceptions, questions are asked about how you managed to achieve or maintain the current level of progress, any recent positive changes and how you developed new and existing strengths, resources, and positive traits.  By bringing small successes to your awareness, and supporting you to repeat your successful choices and behaviours when the problem is not there or is less severe, you will be helped to become more hopeful about yourself and your future, moving towards your goals and towards preferred future you have identified.

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Solution-focused therapy has been found successful in helping a broad spectrum of society, including couples, families and children. It is thought to work very effectively for those who are keen to embrace change and have a goal-orientated mind-set, as these individuals are often more responsive to therapy techniques. Due to the brief nature of the approach, SFBT is often valued by those who lead fast-paced lifestyles. A typical course of SFBT lasts for five to eight sessions, each typically lasting for 50 minutes.

 

Weekday sessions are priced at £75 per session, payable at each session. Evening sessions are available for £90 per session.

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Cognitive Behavioural Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP)

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Cognitive Behavioural Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) has been developed specifically for people with chronic depression. Chronic depression refers to a type of depression that has been present for at least two years for adults (one year for adolescents), and has often arisen as a result of traumatic experiences or interpersonal difficulties with significant others such as family members and childhood friends. CBASP aims to connect you with the interpersonal world you live in and teach you how to improve your mood by negotiating your interpersonal relationships to achieve desirable outcomes.

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The six-step procedure of CBASP (called Situational Analysis) is the main focus of each session. Situational Analysis enables you to focus on a stressful "slice of time" in your life. You are helped to describe what happened, your interpretation of what happened, your behaviour and its outcome, and your preferred outcome. Then, you are helped to look at whether or not you obtained your preferred outcome in the situation. Past relationships and trauma are explored together. The process is repeated in every session. Situational Analysis aims to help you to become more goal focused, to realise your own interpersonal behaviours encourage or hinder achieving your goals,. It also helps to recognise the main problem behaviours that hinder achieving what you want and to help you learn new interpersonal skills to remedy these problems. Research evidence indicates that CBASP is more effective than CBT for chronic depression (depression that has lasted for two years or more).

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A typical course of CBASP lasts for around 30 sessions, typically over 7 to 8 months, each session lasting 50 minutes.

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Weekday sessions are priced at £75 per session, payable at each session. Evening sessions are available for £90 per session.

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