Common Queries

Hopefully you will find the answer to your question here but if not, please contact us via the tab above.

What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a psychological approach to the treatment of anxiety and depression disorders including but not limited to:

- Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

- Major Depressive Disorder

- Social Anxiety/ Social Phobia

- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

- Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

It offers a problem-focused approach to the difficulties you are currently experiencing day to day, rather than focusing in great detail on the history and development of the issue. CBT makes use of the relationship between our thoughts, feelings and behaviours to affect change in the way that we think, feel and behave.

CBT is not the kind of therapy where you will sit and talk about your problems to no end with a therapist - it offers practical solutions to the management of your difficulties. It is hard work and this should not be underestimated - the therapy relies on the work that you complete outside of the sessions and your therapist should be viewed as a means of guiding you along this journey.

How do I know if CBT is for me?

Are you struggling with constant worry, anxiety or low mood but aren't sure if you meet the threshold for therapy?

Please reach out and drop us a message with a summary of the difficulty you are experiencing and we will give you a clear answer on whether on not you would benefit from further assessment. If you are clearly presenting with issues that aren't suitable for CBT, you will be told as such and signposted to a more relevant service, if appropriate, so that you are not wasting your time or money booking an assessment.

How many sessions of CBT will I need?

This varies dependant on your presenting problem but as a general rule of thumb, clients need a minimum of six sessions to feel the benefit of the intervention and the sessions don't tend to go beyond twelve sessions, unless the client has a particular clinical need for it.

The aim during the assessment phase is to identify exactly the issues that require addressing and to offer you a clear picture on what to expect in terms of treatment sessions.

How long does each therapy session take?

Your initial assessment will take one hour and subsequent sessions will take 50 minutes. The sessions are delivered weekly.

What is the recovery rate for CBT?

The national average for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy recovery is over 50% (NHS Digital, 2019). There are a number of reasons why a client may not achieve recovery:

1) The client has not engaged fully in the therapy e.g. failed to complete set tasks outside of therapy

2) The client has experienced a significant life event unexpectedly during therapy causing them to end therapy sooner than desired

3) The client was not wholly appropriate for a CBT intervention and may have been incorrectly signposted to the service

At Calm Minds, the aim is to complete a robust assessment at the beginning of therapy and if you appear to present with a difficulty that is better treated outside the realm of CBT, then you will be signposted to the appropriate service and CBT will not be completed. This saves both your time and money on treatment that will not be effective.

It is also anticipated that clients seeking private therapy are motivated to get better, hence why they are willing to pay to access treatment more quickly and so this often removes the problem of clients not completing the necessary work outside of session.

All in all, if we don't think you stand a good chance of recovery we won't waste your time.

Reference

NHS Digital (2019). More than half of patients who finished psychological therapy recovered in 2017-18. NHS Digital Press Releases, UK. Available online:

https://digital.nhs.uk/news/2018/more-than-half-of-patients-who-finished-psychological-therapy-recovered-in-2017-18

Do you offer payment plans?

We offer an option to pay for your sessions weekly, if you prefer not to purchase a bundle of 6 sessions.

The long term hope is that private therapy becomes more accessible for people that may prefer to spread out the cost and so we are working on exploring options such as Klarna across the next few months - watch this space!

Currently, all payments should be received at least 24 hours prior to the session commencing.