Anxiety, Depression, and other uncomfortable emotions can feel very overwhelming and can get in the way of a person living the life that he/she wants to live. They often cause people to feel helpless, hopeless, and out of control. That is where CBT comes in! CBT is an empirically supported approach to therapy that focuses on helping clients gain control over and feel empowered in the face of emotions and life challenges. The goal of treatment is for each client to become his/her own therapist, learning skills over the course of treatment that he/she will take with them and continue to apply them in their lives once treatment has ended.

For adults, the usual setup is that the client and therapist meet for weekly sessions in which both the client and therapist are active participants. The client should expect to gain a better sense of what he/she is going through and learn effective strategies for addressing the difficult areas in his/her life. Most weeks there will be some sort of “home” assignment, to help the client practice and generalize the work that was done in session. Once the client believes that he/she has mastery over the approach, has achieved a decrease in symptoms, and feels ready, the therapist and client will meet less often until he/she feels ready to end treatment.

For children, the goal of educating the client and teaching strategies to help him/her help him/herself remains paramount, but the involvement of others outside of the client is something that differentiates child therapy from adult work. Due to children’s difficulty in retaining and applying the “tricks” that were covered, as well as their limited control over their environment, parents become co-coaches with the therapist to help ensure helpful changes outside of the office. Thus, sometimes parents and children will meet together with the therapist or sometimes the parent(s) will come in toward the end of session to hear what was covered and what the plan is for the coming week.