What if cbt doesnt work

I came to counselling thinking that it would be 50 minutes a week of getting a load off my chest. I expected to leave each session feeling relieved and lighter. Despite not finding CBT useful at the time, I now find myself employing some of the tactics I learned there, and they do help. I was initially unprepared for both CBT and counselling, and the shock of how hard they were led to me quitting one, and almost quitting the other.

There are other options and approaches out there, and there will be something and someone that can help you. The thing is, our sessions have gone a bit like this so far - I'll tell her something that's happened to me that week, I'll tell her how it made me feel, and I'll also tell her how irrational my feelings are and how I am fully aware that a lot of my anxiety and paranoia is in my head but for some reason I feel powerless to it anyway.

And that's it. Sorry if this is a little long winded. New discussion Reply. What I did find helpful though was the talking. The important thing is to be honest with yourself and your mental health professionals. I agree maybe 3 sessions isn't enough to know if its not helping yet. Maybe try another 3? If it works then that's great, if not then maybe look to other talk therapies.

It's all about finding what is a good fit for you personally. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Hi, Thank you for your insight it was helpful hearing your experience, so thanks for sharing that with me. Nah, you're good. Plenty help, cheers. No bother. Let us know how you get on! Hi, Thanks for your response.

I'd stick it out for a bit. It doesn't sound a lot like the CBT I had, where the therapist gave me lots of suggestions, and made me practice things in between sessions to get the hang of thinking differently. Schema therapy relies on these core principles:. This therapeutic style relies a lot on trauma work and attachment theory.

Right now, this is the therapy style that is most beneficial to me. Figuring out if therapy is working for you is tricky. And in the meantime, check out some of the resources I linked above, they might be a huge help. If this was a helpful guide to CBT and other alternative therapy schemas, let me know in the comments below. What kinds of therapies have you tried? Are you thinking about starting therapy?

A meta-analytical review of well-controlled trials. Psychological Medicine , 1 DOI: Why CBT may not have worked for you CBT is an effective approach for many people, however, this does not automatically mean it is the right fit for you. This can be helpful for many people, however, for others, six to twelve hours is not long enough to decipher and come up with solutions to long standing problems Some CBT therapists may focus more on the CBT techniques than on building a strong therapeutic relationship with clients — for more on the importance of a strong therapeutic relationship, see our next blog The mass roll out of CBT across the UK means that there is a wide variety of therapists available.