The Benefit of Structured CBT Therapy
There are many ways to practice psychotherapy, and many modalities that are used by therapists in sessions. Some of the more common or popular modalities include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectic Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems, (IFS), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR). Today we’re talking about CBT, which is the current gold standard for the treatment of disorders such as anxiety or depression.
Research has shown that having structure in your CBT sessions, especially setting an agenda, is an important element to effective therapy. This skill of structuring sessions can be quite helpful to both client and therapist as it provides order and organization to the therapy session. It helps to ensure your goals are being met, and that your time in therapy is used effectively.
One way of structuring sessions includes the following:
A review of the last session and how you were feeling and thinking after it finished
Assessment of your current mood and symptoms
Review of any homework that might have been agreed upon at the end of the last session
Deciding on the main session topics for the day, and checking how they tie back to your overall goal for therapy
Engaging in therapy to explore and address those topics
Deciding upon any homework or assignments to continue the work from session
Checking in on any feedback you have for your therapist about the session, or if there’s anything you’d like done differently in future sessions
The pace of moving through these stages will vary from therapist to therapist, but ensuring you attend to each of them in session will help to keep you on track and make sure you’re feeling appropriately seen and heard by your therapist.
When keeping structure to your sessions you do also have to work with your therapist to make sure you aren’t putting too many items on your agenda, that you aren’t avoiding addressing major items or issues you came to therapy with, and that you’re correcting your therapist if there is any misunderstanding of the meaning of an issue discussed. Not attending to these issues when they come up can interfere with your progress in therapy and in your relationship with your therapist.
Not every therapist is going to structure their CBT sessions, and if you feel that you’d benefit from actively having more (or less) structure it’s important to communicate that at the beginning of your session, or even after your session verbally or by email if that’s easier for you. Ultimately the purpose of therapy is to help you get to where you want or need to be, and if structure in your sessions will help make that happen it’s important to share that.
If you or someone you know would like to explore the ways that Growth & Wellness Therapy Centre can help you on your journey, please contact our intake and administration team to set up a free consultation with one or more of our clinicians. A number of our clinicians, including Vaveena, can support you in exploring if structured CBT sessions would work best for you.
About the Author
Vaveena Somaskantharajah, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) is an individual and child therapist at The Growth & Wellness Therapy Centre providing support for a variety of issues including anxiety, trauma, stress and burnout, ADHD and more.