What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT?
Understand the patterns. Learn practical skills. Create meaningful change.
Sometimes we get caught in patterns that make life harder by overthinking, avoiding things that make us anxious, being overly critical of ourselves, expecting the worst, or feeling stuck in habits that no longer serve us.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based form of therapy that helps you better understand these patterns and learn practical ways to respond differently.
Rather than simply telling you to “think positively,” CBT helps you become curious about how your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and experiences influence one another. Together, we identify what may be keeping you stuck and build skills that can help you move forward.
What can CBT help with?
Anxiety • Depression • Excessive Worry • Stress • Panic • Fears & Avoidance • Low Self-Esteem • Perfectionism • Difficult Life Transitions • Relationship Patterns • Unhelpful Habits
CBT is not a one-size-fits-all treatment. Your therapy should be based on your concerns, your goals, your experiences, and what works for you.
What might that look like?
Imagine you send someone an important text and several hours pass without a response. Your mind might immediately say:
“They’re upset with me. I must have done something wrong.”
You notice anxiety, tension, and a racing heart. You reread the conversation repeatedly, send another message for reassurance, or spend the rest of the evening worrying. CBT does not ask you to replace that thought with something unrealistically positive like:
“Everything is perfect and nobody is upset with me.”
Instead, you might learn to pause and ask:
What do I actually know?
What am I assuming?
Are there other reasonable explanations?
Is this a pattern I recognize?
What response would be most helpful right now?
Perhaps the more balanced thought becomes: “I don’t know why they haven’t responded yet. There are several possible explanations, and I can tolerate not knowing for now.” The goal is not to eliminate uncomfortable thoughts or feelings. It is to develop a more flexible, accurate, and helpful way of responding to them.
What happens in CBT sessions?
CBT is collaborative. Therapy is something we do together, rather than something that is simply done to you.
We may work together to:
Identify patterns in thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
Understand triggers and automatic reactions
Examine whether certain thoughts are accurate, helpful, or incomplete
Develop healthier and more balanced ways of thinking
Gradually approach situations you have been avoiding
Build coping, communication, and problem-solving skills
Change behaviors that may be reinforcing anxiety, depression, or stress
Practice new skills between sessions
Track progress and adjust our approach based on what is working for you
CBT is often structured around the concerns that are affecting your life right now, while still recognizing that your past experiences can shape the beliefs and patterns you carry today.
What makes CBT “evidence-based”?
CBT is one of the most extensively researched forms of psychotherapy.
Decades of clinical research have supported cognitive and behavioral therapies for a variety of mental health concerns, particularly conditions such as anxiety and depression. CBT techniques continue to evolve as researchers learn more about which approaches are most effective for different people and different concerns.
Being evidence-based does not mean therapy should feel rigid or impersonal.
Good CBT combines research-supported techniques with a genuine therapeutic relationship and an individualized understanding of the person sitting in the room.
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