Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy employed in Boutros Bear. It is an effective and clinically-proven treatment approach that incorporates the latest behavioural insights, and is used for a range of mental and emotional health issues, including anxiety and depression. CBT helps you identify and challenge unhelpful thoughts, and learn practical self-help strategies.

Negative thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be broken. Through CBT you will recognise how your thinking affects your mood, and learn to think in a less negative way about yourself and the situations that arise in your life. You are also shown practical ways of dealing with overwhelming problems in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts. Your negative thoughts and feelings will reduce as you discover you can enjoy yourself in social situations.

Below is an example scenario on how CBT can help you reframe negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviour:

 

 

Scenario: You bump into your friend on the street. You greet them, but they don’t acknowledge your greeting and walk past you.
Reaction Harmful Neutral
Thoughts “He ignored me – he doesn’t like me anymore.” “He didn’t notice me – maybe he doesn’t feel well. I should give him a call and find out how he is doing.”
Feelings Your negative thoughts make you feel down, sad and rejected. Your thoughts do not cause any negative feelings.
Behaviour Consequently, you avoid this person in the future, although your assumption could be completely false. Your thoughts prompt you to get back in touch with the person to find out if everything is okay.

 

Source: InformedHealth.org [Internet]. Cologne, Germany: Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG); 2006-. Cognitive behavioral therapy. 2013 Aug 7 [Updated 2016 Sep 8]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279297/

 

CBT can be as effective as medicine but it may not be suitable for everyone. To find out about your suitability, you can contact our care team or bring this up in your next consultation session with your personal health coach.

 

Rex Fan

Works at Boutros Bear

Former Boutros Bear employee

Rex has extensive experience designing Behavioural Interventions through Randomised Control Trials, and deriving deep behavioural insights to be integrated into digital products and services.