CBT is a form of psychotherapy or talking therapy that has been shown to be helpful for a wide range of emotional, psychological, behavioural and physical disorders. Its underlying principle is that people are disturbed not by events in their lives but by their beliefs about those events. In practice, the client and therapist work collaboratively to begin to understand problems in terms of the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Though CBT may focus on the present rather than the past, it will usually also look at how thinking patterns may have begun in early childhood and the impact such patterns have on how we interpret the world as we develop. The client and therapist explore and re-evaluate the patterns, to move towards developing more constructive and helpful feelings and behaviours.

The duration of treatment varies greatly depending on a number of factors but typically sessions are weekly or fortnightly, last 50 minutes and occur within an agreed contract of a number of sessions.