CBT Essentials Part 1

Welcome to a new mini-series within Forrest Rambles which I’m calling ‘CBT Essentials’.  Over the next few months I’ll be looking at the building blocks which make up a typical CBT appointment.  I’m hoping this will be of interest to those of you who are curious about CBT and those who want to know more about what to expect from their treatment.  

It makes sense to start this mini-series with ‘Agenda Setting’ as this is what happens at the start of every CBT appointment.  

If you’ve ever had a job which involves attending meetings you’re probably familiar with the idea of setting an agenda, a bullet pointed plan for what you want to cover during the agreed time frame.  When I first came across the idea of doing this in therapy it didn’t sit right with me as it felt a bit too formal but I can absolutely see the benefits now.  Having an agreed agenda means that your session is focused and you’re therefore more likely to meet your aims for that appointment and treatment overall.  Furthermore, it’s a great opportunity for you as the patient to be involved in your treatment, and to make decisions about the direction you want things to go in.

CBT agendas usually have some agreed items which appear as standard each week such as reviewing mood questionnaires, reviewing homework, checking personal safety and setting homework for the week ahead.  I’ll be looking in more detail at these standing items in separate ‘CBT Essentials’ blogs over the next few months.

Then of course the therapist and patient need to agree a main focus for the session.  Your therapist might have suggestions for this based on the treatment protocol you are working on.  You may also have suggestions for what you want to achieve by the end of the session, things you want to re-visit from previous sessions or perhaps how to understand any difficulties which may have arisen recently.  It can be useful to take some time before each session to reflect on what you would like on the agenda so you are prepared when your therapist asks you.

As well as agreeing the items for the agenda you’ll also consider the best order of addressing things and how long you might need to spend on each item.  The therapist will check in with you to make sure you are happy that things have been covered adequately and that you’re ready to move on to the next item.  Sometimes things might come up during the session which require a change to the agenda and that’s ok, an agenda is a useful guide but not set in stone and flexibility can be agreed between you and your therapist where necessary.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first ‘CBT Essentials’ blog.  Please share the link via your Social Media platforms and join me next month to find out about mood questionnaires and how these are used to facilitate your CBT treatment.