Many people come to therapy expecting to talk mainly about their feelings. In Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), we do talk about feelings, but we spend just as much time looking at the thoughts underneath them. CBT is built on a simple but powerful idea: our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are all connected. Change how you think about a situation, and you often change how you feel and how you respond to it.
When someone is dealing with anxiety or depression, it's common for their thinking to fall into predictable patterns, sometimes called cognitive distortions. Catastrophizing (assuming the worst outcome), all-or-nothing thinking (seeing things as either a total success or a total failure), and mind reading (assuming you know what others are thinking about you) are a few examples. These patterns feel automatic and true in the moment, but they aren't always accurate, and they tend to keep anxiety and low mood going.
One of the first things we do in CBT is simply slow down and notice these thoughts. Not judge them, not immediately dispute them — just notice them. Many clients are surprised at how much of their day is shaped by thoughts they never stopped to examine. Awareness on its own starts to loosen the grip these patterns have.
From there, we work on testing the thought. Is there real evidence for it? Is there evidence against it? Is there a more balanced way to see the situation? This isn't about forcing positive thinking or pretending problems don't exist. It's about making sure the way you're interpreting a situation is actually accurate, because an inaccurate, harsh interpretation is often what turns a hard moment into a spiral.
Alongside the thinking work, CBT also looks at behaviour. Anxiety often leads people to avoid things that feel uncomfortable, and depression often leads to withdrawing from activities that used to matter. Both patterns feel protective in the short term but tend to make things worse over time. Part of therapy involves gently and gradually re-engaging with the people, activities, and situations that anxiety or depression have been narrowing out of your life.
What I find most valuable about CBT is that it gives clients real tools, not just insight. By the end of our work together, you're not dependent on coming back to therapy every time a hard thought shows up. You have a way of catching it, questioning it, and choosing how to respond, on your own.
If anxiety or depression have been shaping more of your life than you'd like, I invite you to reach out. Together, we can look at the patterns that are keeping you stuck and build a more balanced, workable way of thinking through what you're facing.