What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most thoroughly researched and effective forms of therapy available. It is practical, goal-directed, and designed to help you feel better and function better — without keeping you in therapy longer than you need to be.

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How CBT Works

Most forms of therapy focus on talking about your feelings. CBT goes a step further. It is based on a simple but powerful idea: the way you think affects the way you feel, and the way you feel affects the way you behave. By learning to think more accurately and act more effectively, you can change how you feel — even about things that happened long ago.

CBT is not about thinking positively. It is about thinking more accurately. And it is not about endlessly revisiting your past. It is about understanding what is getting in your way right now and learning concrete skills to address it.

What Happens in Sessions?

CBT is structured and purposeful. Here is what you can generally expect:

First session — Understanding your goals. You and your therapist will talk about what is bringing you in and what you want to get out of therapy. Your therapist will ask a lot of questions to understand the nature of the problem, what is maintaining it, and what your strengths and resources are.

Early sessions — Building a treatment plan. You and your therapist will work together to identify specific, achievable goals. For example, if you have social anxiety, your goals might include learning to evaluate situations more accurately, tolerating small amounts of anxiety without avoiding them, and building more effective social skills.

Ongoing sessions — Learning and practicing skills. From session two or three on, you will learn to slow down and examine your thoughts, understand how they connect to your emotions and behaviors, and practice new ways of thinking and acting — both in session and between appointments.

Our Philosophy

You are always in control. Therapy should never feel like something being done to you. You will always know what we are doing and why. If something doesn’t make sense, we will explain it until it does. You make the decisions about your own treatment.

We address the whole person. Problems with emotions, thinking, and relationships rarely have a single cause. We look at biological factors, psychological patterns, and social relationships together — because that is the only way to understand and solve most problems effectively.

We focus on increasing the good, not just reducing the bad. Most people come to us because something is wrong. But reducing problems is only part of what needs to happen. Early in treatment we help you identify areas of your life that can be enriched — through connection, purpose, and enjoyment — and help you find ways to pursue them.

We use only what works. We use the most current, most evidence-based approaches available. Specific treatments are used for specific problems, administered by therapists who understand how and why they work. If something isn’t working after a reasonable amount of time, we change course.

Does CBT Address Deep Issues?

There is a common misconception — taught in many graduate programs and repeated widely in the field — that CBT only works for surface-level problems. That is not true.

Unless you are being treated for OCD or a specific phobia, CBT involves significant exploration of deeply held beliefs — about yourself, other people, the world, and your future. These beliefs shape how you feel and how you behave, often in ways you are not fully aware of. But beliefs are not the only focus. We also work on behavior patterns, avoidance, relationship dynamics, and the ways your environment and biology interact with your psychology.

We will help you examine whether your beliefs are accurate and helpful — and change the ones that are getting in your way. We find that understanding where beliefs came from is far less important than examining them and moving forward. This is not superficial work. It is some of the most meaningful work a person can do.

Will We Talk About My Childhood?

We always ask about your history early in treatment — including your childhood. Sometimes early experiences turn out to be central to what is happening now, and we address them. Other times we find that childhood is less relevant, and we move on.

If you have spent years in therapy talking about your past without feeling like it led anywhere, you are not alone. CBT is different. Our primary focus is always on what you can do right now to make your life better — not on endlessly revisiting where you came from.

How Does CBT Compare With Medication?

For anxiety and OCD, the research is clear: CBT produces significantly better outcomes than medication, and the gains last longer after treatment ends. For depression, CBT is at least as effective as medication — and again, the improvements tend to last longer.

We are not licensed to prescribe medication and we do not claim expertise in it. But we are confident that what we do works, and we are committed to helping you get better as efficiently as possible.