Advice on private CBT

[Snoodlester]

I've been told I have GAD, and I'm on a waiting list with the NHS for CBT - have been for a couple of months. I'm not 100% sure, but I think they said when I do get to see/speak to someone it'll be a total of 6 weekly 1hr sessions.

I've been recommended a private therapist by a friend and they charge £75 for an initial 2hr session, and then £50 per 1hr session thereafter. Although some clients need less time, they say the average is 16-20 sessions. That would make it rather expensive - especially as I've just been made redundant.

I'm wondering if people can let me know their experiences of this.

Thank you, Sue x

[StaffordEd]

Hi

Welcome to the site.

I have no personal experience of CBT but from what I have read makes a lot of sense. What has happened is the old mind has gone on the rampage by turning rational thoughts into irrational behavior. Its very good at that, as basically you have just lost control of your mind ( not lost your mind )

CBT analyses the perception of your thought process and tries to address the imbalance.
Your mind is trying to turn any thoughts you have into negative one's and no matter how hard you try you end up giving in. This becomes a downward spiral.

This is an article I found hope it makes sense.

Cognitive therapy (CT) is a type of psychotherapy developed by American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck. CT is one of the therapeutic approaches within the larger group of cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) and was first expounded by Beck in the 1960s. Cognitive therapy seeks to help the patient overcome difficulties by identifying and changing dysfunctional thinking, behavior, and emotional responses. This involves helping patients develop skills for modifying beliefs, identifying distorted thinking, relating to others in different ways, and changing behaviors.[1] Treatment is based on collaboration between patient and therapist and on testing beliefs. Therapy may consist of testing the assumptions which one makes and identifying how certain of one's usually unquestioned thoughts are distorted, unrealistic and unhelpful. Once those thoughts have been challenged, one's feelings about the subject matter of those thoughts are more easily subject to change. Beck initially focused on depression and developed a list of "errors" in thinking that he proposed could maintain depression, including arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, over-generalization, and magnification (of negatives) and minimization (of positives).
An example of how CT works is this: having made a mistake at work, a man may believe, "I'm useless and can't do anything right at work." Strongly believing this then tends to worsen his mood. The problem may be worsened further if the individual reacts by avoiding activities and then behaviorally confirming the negative belief to himself. As a result, any adaptive response and further constructive consequences become unlikely, which reinforces the original belief of being "useless." In therapy, this example could be identified as a self-fulfilling prophecy or "problem cycle," and the efforts of the therapist and client would be directed at working together to change it. This is done by addressing the way the client thinks and behaves in response to similar situations and by developing more flexible ways to think and respond, including reducing the avoidance of activities and the practicing of positive activities (called Mood repair strategies). If, as a result, the patient escapes the negative thought patterns and dysfunctional behaviors, the negative feelings may be relieved over time.

Medicine alone just masks the underlying problem.

I am seeing my doctor in two weeks and I will bring CBT up with him.

Its good to see you taking such a positive step.

Keep chatting we would love to hear how you get on.

Best wishes

Ed

[Tessar]

Hello sue. I did cbt about a decade ago & luckily had private health insurance at that point. I have recently been seeing a counsellor to work again on similar things. She does her first session free (30 mins - so you can both see if you feel it will work for you & that you are suited to each other). Then after that it's £45 per session. £50 would sound ok to me, the length of treatment can depend entirely on the nature of the problems & how easy or not you find to challenge those beliefs & amend your way of thinking. I strongly recommend CBT but feel you do need to do "enough" sessions to ensure you really have mastered the art shall we say and improved enough to keep going independently. Its so hard to estimate how many sessions you might need, that is always the difficulty. It involves plenty of hard work from you and some sole searching as well I would believe but it is entirely worth every bit of effort you put in. If you go into it with a positive mindset then the likelihood is you will find it successful. Hope this helps!!

[Anna C]

Hi Sue

I found a therapist in my area by googling bacp, they wil have a list of therapists in your area. It will tell you how much they charge and maybe you could visit a few first until you are happy that you will feel comfortable and be able to open up to the person.

I knew it was a lady counsellor that I wanted to talk to, mine is £35 but I suppose it depends on where you live. I have been seeing her for a while she does cbt and she is brilliant. Good luck and take care.

[steveo]

I would have to argue with what Anna C has to say here I'm afraid.

The BACP qualification is absolutely awful. Don't expect your medical issues to be discussed if you have a cheap BACP 'CBT' therapist out.

If you want PROPER CBT then you need someone who has BABCP qualification and you can search for someone on here - http://www.babcp.com/Default.aspx

I've had both and there is one heck of a difference between the 2 qualifications!

The BABCP trained CBT therapists are more expensive but are properly qualified with what you need.

You will pay alot less for someone who has a 'CBT' training from BACP but you won't get your problem sorted unless you just want someone to talk to.

---------- Post added at 16:54 ---------- Previous post was at 16:52 ----------

This backs up what I have to say - http://cbttherapist.com/dir/accreditation/

---------- Post added at 16:57 ---------- Previous post was at 16:54 ----------

http://www.bacp.co.uk/iapt/cbt.php

And have a read of this on the BACP website.

Interestingly Q6 states you can have a 1 day introduction course or 2 - 5 day skill course. Do you really want to try and tackle a problem such as GAD with someone who has done a short course?
Avoid BACP if you want proper CBT.

[Snoodlester]

Thanks guys, that's really helpful - and interesting too to read the articles Steveo. My therapist friend is on the CBT accredited website so that's reassuring.

Sue x

[Tessar]

Steve, that's quite interesting because at my initial counselling appointment, my counsellor was very clear that she only had limited CBT skills. Her skills lie in transactional analysis & some other areas (including BACP, but she also has degrees & other things backing it all up).
As it happens my CBT was provided by a very qualified therapist (she was a forensic psychologist with all sorts of qualifications to her name). By the time I saw her she had retired from main stream practice & did a few days a week doing CBT. I felt in awe of her at times because I knew how qualified she was (but that was just one of my hang-ups that reared its ugly head in my sessions, doh).
It was an amazing experience. We worked not only on my background and where my problems originated from but also on making sure I learned how to challenge my unrealistic beliefs and views that I was still holding into from the past. She didn't come cheap, 10 years ago it cost £85 a go (but as I said below I got it privately on health insurance through my job). Had I been paying there is no way I could have afforded to see her. In that respect I know I was very lucky that my employer offered this perk.
I suppose that once you learn how to use CBT properly, and that can take time, it's a joint effort between you and your therapist or counsellor but in the end, its you applying the skills.
Perhaps for top up sessions, you could do what I have done which is seek out a counsellor who could help with what's going on in your life now and/or the issues hanging over from the past. At the same time you could use the CBT skills in life generally. That's pretty much where I am at now. Having the back up of my counsellor has given me the safety net I need to help myself.

[steveo]

I learnt alot about CBT during my nursing degree.

When my breakdown first starting in Jan, my mum panicked and found a CBT therapist near me who came round to my house.

I have a very clear understanding of what CBT is so I was very confused that she decided to structure a plan of how to fill up my days and keep me occupied and when I discussed my panic attacks she would dismiss it. I had a couple more sessions with her and realised that this was absolutely counter productive and not helpful and she knew very little about anxiety, agoraphobia and depression.

I then seeked out another CBT therapist and he then told me about the different accreditations. This CBT therapist tackled my anxiety and agoraphobia too using a proper CBT model.

Unfortunately there are more 'CBT' therapists with the lower accreditation than proper CBT therapists that use a MODEL and without knowing the difference between BACP and BABCP, people are not getting the correct treatment. I worry that there are a lot of people who said that they have tried CBT and it hasn't worked, when in actual fact there are people who have seen people with a days training.

I'm not here to name and shame but when my mum googled CBT Cardiff for me she found this lady - http://www.rhiannonsargent.com/ and in all honesty, it says CBT and its a top google search result.
Absolutely NOTHING we did was CBT.

I am very against these BACP 'CBT' accreditations.

If the admins allow me, I would like to write a proper post to let people know the difference between the 2 accreditations and what to look for when looking for a CBT therapist. If an admin reads this and would like me to write an informed article on this, drop me a PM and I will be more than happy to do this for a stick thread.

[Tessar]

Again Steve I find what you say interesting. You may well have hit the nail on the head there because I was surprised when people have said that CBT didn't work for them. I know that any therapy is always better if you have good bond with the therapist but regardless of that, if the treatment provided doesn't properly fit the condition(s) being treated its unlikely to work. Now that I have had CBT, I can see what you are talking about in the differences, but for anyone who is new to it, the whole thing must be very confusing.

[Snoodlester]

I have to agree with you both. I was confused how one could say 6 sessions is enough, when another thought 16-20 more appropriate. It also seems 'misleading' to select a therapist if they're cheaper if you didn't know the difference - better to pay the extra for someone who's fully qualified.