As a strategy & an approach, used alongside & in conjunction with NLP Life Coaching, CBT is a psychosocial intervention that is the most widely used as an evidence based practice for treating mental disorders.

Guided by empirical research, CBT focuses on the development of personal coping strategies that target solving current problems and changing unhelpful patterns in cognitions (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes), behaviours, and emotional regulation. It was originally designed to treat depression, and is now used for a number of mental health conditions.

The CBT model is based on a combination of the basic principles from behavioural and cognitive psychology. It is  “problem-to-opportunity-to-solution focused” and “action-oriented”, meaning it is used to treat specific problems related to unwanted behaviour and the coach’s role is to assist the client in finding and practising effective strategies to address the identified goals and decrease symptoms of the situation.

CBT is based on the belief that thought distortions and maladaptive behaviour/s play a role in the development and maintenance of psychological disorders, and that symptoms and associated distress can be reduced by teaching new information-processing skills and coping mechanisms.

CBT was found to be superior in treating most disorders and is recommended in treatment guidelines as a psychosocial treatment of choice.

The basic steps in a cognitive-behavioural assessment include:

• Step 1: Identify critical behaviours
• Step 2: Determine whether critical behaviours are excesses or deficits
• Step 3: Evaluate critical behaviours for frequency, duration, or intensity (obtain a baseline)
• Step 4: If excess, attempt to decrease frequency, duration, or intensity of behaviours; if deficits, attempt to increase behaviours.