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Online & In Person CBT Therapist In Edinburgh & Glasgow
Social Anxiety

Social Anxiety

Social anxiety disorder, or SAD, is when a person worries too much about being in one or more social situations. For example, people with SAD often feel anxious when they have to give speeches, attend social events, meet new people, eat in public, use public bathrooms, disagree with others, or talk to people in power.
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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), first used to treat depression in the 1960s, is often used to treat SAD. It is now the most popular way to treat a wide range of problems, including anxiety disorders. According to studies, CBT has been found to be an effective treatment for SAD.
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One of the main goals of CBT is to find and replace irrational thoughts and beliefs with ones that are more realistic. Your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are all tied together. So by figuring out what thoughts don't help, you can change how you feel and what you do.
 
Several factors can increase the effectiveness of CBT in treating SAD. The likelihood that CBT will help you depends primarily on your success expectations, how willing you are to do your homework, and how well you can deal with uncomfortable thoughts. People are more likely to get better if they are eager to work hard and believe CBT will help them. Even though this therapy is challenging and requires you to participate actively, it works, and the effects last for a long time.

Depression

Depression

Depression is among the most debilitating mental illnesses. Depression can be devastating for some people, but it can be treated. Combining treatments and the possibility of switching medication and adding cognitive-behavioural therapy can significantly increase the chances of getting better.
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CBT takes less time than psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy. Other types of therapies may require several years for discovery and treatment. CBT usually takes up to 20 sessions, but you can keep seeing your therapist as long as you need to. Since every situation is different, you and I will decide together how many sessions you need.
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CBT sessions allow you to figure out what in your life might be causing or adding to your depression. In addition, CBT lets you and your therapist figure out thoughts and behaviours that aren't helping you anymore.

Relationships

Relationships

Relationships between people are complicated, hard to manage, and can seem dangerous. Because relationships can be fraught with conflict, resentment, and misinterpretations, it takes work to keep them going. One of the most important things we can bring to a relationship, whether romantic or not, is the ability to think about things from different points of view. We can make our minds more flexible by being more aware of how we make sense of things and by looking at things from more adaptable points of view.
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Being aware of cognitive distortions can help you think in ways that are better for your relationship. Cognitive distortions are patterns of thinking that we fall into despite not being accurate representations of what is happening. So, for example, when we want to fix a mistake, we should first look at our thinking instead of looking through it. Then think about whether there's a better way to see what's going on.
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Interventions based on CBT can help people improve all kinds of relationships, from those with casual co-workers to those with significant others, like spouses or family members. Creating and maintaining satisfying relationships is difficult for everyone for different reasons. CBT takes this into account and helps clients focus on their particular difficulties.

Generalised Anxiety

Generalised Anxiety

Worrying is normal, but if you worry too much, it can wear you out and hurt your health. This is called Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and it is estimated that between 2% and 6% of the general population have GAD every year. The good news is that GAD can be effectively treated with CBT.
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With CBT, therapists help people become more aware of their unhelpful thoughts and beliefs, challenge them, and replace them with healthier ways of thinking. For example, let's say that someone is apprehensive about something. In that case, CBT might help them recognise the worry, get rid of it, and start thinking in a more helpful and gentle way.
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Aaron Beck, the founder of CBT, thought people's thoughts make them act in specific ways. This is the behavioural part of CBT. So, one of his goals was to help people regain control of their lives by changing how they act. For example, people with GAD often avoid people, places, and things that make them anxious. Unfortunately, the more people try to avoid what makes them anxious, the more likely their anxiety will worsen.
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Beck thought that if people changed their behaviour and chose to engage instead of avoiding, they could lower their overall anxiety and make decisions that weren't based on their anxiety. Another thing that people with GAD do is to plan and prepare for things repeatedly, even if they never happen. As people come to believe that planning is helpful and reduces stress and anxiety, they will continue to do it, making it a behaviour that reinforces itself. As a result, people spend more and more time, and energy getting ready for these hypothetical situations and start associating anxiety with a broader range of situations. In these situations, CBT can help to stop or lessen the planning behaviour and reduce anxiety overall.
OCD

OCD

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most depleting anxiety disorders. It is characterised by repeated thoughts, urges, or images that cause fear or worry ("obsessions") or by repetitive, systematic actions (called "compulsions") that the person feels compelled to do to reduce fear or avoid something they fear.
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In the UK, CBT is the treatment of choice for OCD. Researchers have found that CBT greatly helps about 75% of people with OCD. Also, this type of therapy has no risks or side effects, which is why the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) still recommends it as the best way to treat OCD.
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CBT alone is often a very effective way to treat OCD. Still, some people do better with a treatment plan that includes both CBT and medication. This is especially true if they have another problem, like depression, at the same time.
Low Self-Esteem

Low Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem means that you don't think much of yourself. If you don't like yourself, you might be shy or nervous around other people, think you're not good enough or be hard on yourself. Some people with low self-esteem know that they are too hard on themselves, while others believe their negative thoughts so strongly that they feel like facts.
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CBT teaches people how to boost their self-esteem by first making them aware of how their thoughts, feelings, and actions are linked. Then, by teaching clients to recognise these negative automatic thoughts, pointing out the underlying errors in their thinking, and challenging them by rewriting the thoughts in a more alternative and balanced way, thoughts become hypotheses to test instead of truths to be taken at face value and acted on.
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