Compassion Focused Therapy – Louise Barker CBT

When you’re new to the world of counselling and psychotherapy it can feel a daunting task to find a therapist. Unfortunately, protecting the public from unqualified therapists is a challenge because ‘CBT Therapist’ is not a protected title; anyone can call themselves a CBT Therapist, and anyone can say they provide CBT. Hopefully, this checklist will help you to find the right therapist who has the qualities, skills and experience to provide you with evidence-based therapy that can make a difference to your life:

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When searching online, pay close attention to the therapist’s biography, how did they become a CBT therapist and what is their wider experience in the mental health field?
Check that they are accredited by the BABCP. This is the lead organisation for cognitive and behavioural psychotherapies in the UK and Ireland. This is the professional body that governs the standards, ethics and conduct of CBT therapists. To become accredited the therapist must demonstrate high standards of post-graduate training in CBT and significant experience in a core profession related to mental health. You can check the accreditation status of CBT Therapists here: https://babcp.com/CBTRegister/Search#/
Talk to trusted friends, family or co-workers to see if they can recommend a therapist to you.
Speak with your GP or other health professionals in case they can make a referral on your behalf.
Think about accessibility. Do you prefer to meet the therapist face to face or does remote therapy suit you better? Do their working hours fit with your lifestyle and family commitments.
Call a few therapists and have a quick chat. How quickly they respond and how they answer your questions will tell you a lot. Do they listen without judgement and put you at ease? Do they sound friendly and professional.
Finally, if you start therapy and discover that the therapist isn’t a good fit for you, they won’t be offended if you want to discuss this before deciding whether you want to book further sessions.

MYTH 1: The ultimate goal of CBT is to shift negative thoughts to positive ones.

CBT does focus on challenging negative thinking patterns and for this reason many people believe clients are simply invited to think positively about their problems. CBT actually encourages people to take a realistic look at their lives and explore more flexible, helpful ways of thinking. If a client has negative thoughts about a situation, they may well be right. Their job may be very difficult or they may have a challenging health condition. CBT helps people identify, accept and embrace both pleasant and unpleasant thoughts and feelings and try to find alternative, more helpful ways of coping with life’s demands.

MYTH 2: CBT isn’t interested in deeper causes. It’s all “surface stuff.”

A common misconception about CBT is that it isn’t interested in deeper rooted problems. However, while many clients will improve by working solely with how they think about current events, CBT therapists will often work directly with client’s long term negative beliefs (rather than just their present negative automatic thoughts) and part of this inevitably involves childhood historical events in order to understand where these beliefs have come form.

MYTH 3: CBT is a rigid, mechanical approach designed to simply retrain the brain.

While CBT has many tools in it’s tool box, people’s individuality is not ignored. In addition to the mainstream version of CBT originally developed by Ellis &Beck in the 1950′ and 60’s, CBT now includes a range of approaches developed to treat different types of psychological, emotional and behavioural problems. Some of these include:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Compassion Focused Therapy
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
Schema Therapy

MYTH 4: CBT is ‘quick in, quick out’.

While some problems may be treated in as few as 6 sessions, CBT is not particularly ‘quick in quick out’. The outcome research for CBT typically assumes 12 to 15 sessions on a weekly of fortnightly basis. This can represent the better part of a years work and is typically longer than many forms of counselling. Therefore, CBT is more accurately described as a medium term psychotherapeutic modality.

In summary CBT teaches clients how to convert personal insight into tangible improvements in dealing with distress, solving problems, improving relationships and changing behaviour. It is orientated to helping people to manage problems and live a more meaningful and fulfilling life.

Tag: Compassion Focused Therapy

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