In-person anxiety therapy Spalding, Lincolnshire & online anxiety therapist worldwide
Why I don't use CBT for anxiety
Has someone recommended Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for anxiety?
Let me guess - they told you it was the "gold standard" and "evidence based"?
But filing better paperwork doesn't always solve the problem of anxiety.
What CBT promises (versus what actually happens)
CBT promises to help you "challenge your thoughts" and "change your behaviours". Sounds brilliant, doesn't it?
But what you actually end up with is:
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Demands for more details records of anxious thoughts
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Instructions for better systems for cataloguing your worries
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Extra paperwork about how you're "doing it wrong"
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Orders for paperwork to prove you're listening to your anxiety's increasingly insane demands.
Why Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Spalding fails (okay, not just in Spalding)
CBT is like trying to reason with a tsunami using a PowerPoint presentation. (Here's a thought diary for your existential crisis - I'm sure those neat little columns will fix everything).
All it really does is teach you to document your anxiety more efficiently, as if detailed note-taking about your worries will somehow make them pack up and leave. It's rather like bringing a protractor to a sword fight - technically a tool, but definitely not the one you need
You end up:
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Documenting every thought in triplicate
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Creating flowcharts of your "cognitive distortions"
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Writing essays about your "incorrect" thinking
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Basically becoming your anxiety's administrator
And the success rate for all this extra record-keeping?
Let's look at the NHS's own figures from 2022-23: Even CBT, their golden child of therapy approaches, only helps about 48% of people "recover". That means anxiety keeps its position as "Boss from Hell" for more than half the people who attend the therapy.
And before you ask - yes, those are the actual numbers.
Surprising how rarely they tell you that in the CBT leaflets, isn't it?
What works instead (because freedom beats flowcharts)
Rather than more paperwork, I help people with anxiety using:
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Provocative Change Works therapy - for when you're ready to stop taking anxiety's demands so seriously
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Eye movement therapy - because sometimes you need to see things differently
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Strategic coaching - real conversations about real change
Ready to stop filing reports about your anxiety?
Let's start with a free 15 minute chat on Zoom (no life story necessary, no hard sell)
If we click, then I'll send you a booking in link.
You book two appointments (because Rome wasn't built in a day and your anxiety won't be resolved in one session)
More sessions are available, but only if there's value in them.
And yes, you can leave your CBT worksheets at home.
DEEP & MEANINGFUL MOMENT:
"A setback can be a setup for a comeback if you don't let up."
David Berman