4-minute read · Individual
Many people picture therapy as lying on a couch talking about childhood. Cognitive behaviour therapy looks very different, and it can start changing things this week.
It’s Sunday night and the familiar dread arrives. “This week will be a disaster. I’m going to stuff up that meeting. Everyone will see I don’t know what I’m doing.”
By the time you fall asleep, you’ve lived through Monday ten times, and every version went badly.
The simple idea at the heart of CBT
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is built on a straightforward idea: how we think affects how we feel and what we do.
When thoughts like “Nothing ever works out” or “Everyone is judging me” become automatic, life starts to feel smaller and heavier. We avoid things, our mood drops, and the avoidance seems to prove the thought right.
What CBT looks like in the room
In CBT we sit face to face (or on screen) and work together on what is happening in your life right now. It is collaborative and practical:
Setting clear goals, such as sleeping better or feeling less anxious socially.
Noticing thoughts and checking whether they are accurate or helpful.
Small experiments in real life, like trying a different response to a familiar trigger.
Practice between sessions, so change flows into everyday life.
A toolkit, not a rigid manual
Decades of research show CBT can help with anxiety, low mood, worry, insomnia and stress. But no single approach suits everyone. In my work, CBT is a flexible toolkit, adapted to your culture, values and story, and combined with other approaches when that helps more.
The aim isn’t to fix your personality. It’s to help you relate differently to painful thoughts so you can move towards a life that feels more like yours.
A thought is not a fact. It is something your mind offers you, and you can learn to question it.
Pause and reflect
Take a quiet moment with these questions. You might like to write your answers down, or talk them over with someone you trust.
What thought tends to show up when you feel at your worst?
What do you usually do, or avoid doing, when that thought appears?
What would you say to a close friend who had the same thought?
Try this this week: catch, check, change
Catch it: when your mood drops, write down the thought going through your mind.
Check it: ask, “What is the evidence for and against this? Is there another way to see it?”
Change it: write a more balanced thought, and notice how you feel when you read it.
You don’t have to do this alone
If you feel stuck in spirals of worry, self-criticism or low mood, I offer CBT-informed counselling in Campsie and online across Australia, tailored to you.
Individual counselling →
Book a free 15-minute call →
If you are in crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 000 in an emergency.