News & Comment

Summer 2009

There is much talk in the news at the moment about the much publicised investment by the government into the NHS for CBT. As an integrative therapist I thought it would be useful to give a brief description, as it is a much debated subject at present.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a general classification of psychotherapy, although the use of the word psychotherapy in the context of CBT is I believe dubious, as it fulfills only a part of the criteria. Used exclusively, I would prefer to call it a training course. There are several approaches to CBT fall within this classification, including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, to name but a few. Each approach has its own developmental history. The first discrete, intentionally therapeutic approach to CBT to be developed was Rational Emotive Therapy (RET), which was originated by Albert Ellis, Ph.D. in the mid-1950's. Ellis developed his approach in reaction to his disliking of what he thought of as the in-efficient and in-directive nature of Psychoanalysis.

CBT theory maintains that psychological dysfunction is understood in terms of mechanisms of learning and information processing. In short how we are conditioned throughout our lives and how this effects our responses. For example, biases toward attending to threatening information or toward interpreting ambiguous situations as threatening contribute to excessive or unnecessary anxiety. Similarly, memory biases for distressing events or negative details of events may contribute to depressed mood. Learning to shift appraisals, core beliefs, and associated biases in attention and memory forms the basis of CBT. In short negative conditioning is essentially dealt with by re-programming the mind, having a new thought about it if you like.

The therapy also tends to be brief and too infrequent on the NHS in my opinion, although this may well change with the new investment. I do believe cognitive therapy is useful and I do use these techniques in my practice, but only as one part of a more integrated approach. In summary the governments focus CBT is a step forward, but I believe flawed as it is too exclusive.

Autumn 2009

Counselling and psychotherapy is currently voluntarily regulated in the main via two bodies, the BACP and the UKCP. However, this does not stop anyone setting up shop, hypnotists, psychics, religious organisations all sometimes offer counselling and psychotherapy, whilst being completely unqualified to do so.  Regulation is overdue, and there is currently a debate going on about what form regulation will take.
It is likely that we will come under the umbrella of the HPC, when this comes into effect those practicing without qualifications and training will likely be breaking the law. A modern training takes at least four years, usually it takes a student six years to get a competent training, so this is a welcome move. There is always a danger of over regulation, but we shall see when the regulations come into affect possibly sometime next year.