Situating Low Intensity CBT in today’s society Wasseem El Sarraj is a Londonbased PWP in training who takes time out to give CBT Today readers his thoughts on the value he places in Low Intensity CBT to help cope with the hectic life we lead
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CBT Today | April 2016
Humans overcomplicate. It’s a tendency that speaks to our oversized brains. Occasionally, like when a great novel is written, or scientific breakthroughs are made, we can all revel in human genius. However, quite often we are walking around dreaming, making up complex stories about ourselves, about others, about the world in order to justify our behaviours - behaviours which can be wonderful, but can also be deeply destructive.
much of mental suffering down to:‘I don’t feel I can cope’. Now what it is that the person cannot cope with can be an event, a thought, a feeling, or of course some combination. For example the dentist; she can’t cope with the thought that she has done something wrong. She goes to great lengths to protect herself from the thought:‘what if my last action was wrong, and the patient I just saw becomes very unwell?’
I work in Low Intensity CBT. Many people accuse this therapy as being over simplistic, of not being able to provide insight, of taking the meaning out of life. I understand why people might think this, but in fact CBT can provide insight, meaning and much more.
With that thought comes a whole raft of emotions; uncertainty, fear, incompetence, worry - none of which sound very pleasant. No wonder she is triple checking and calling her patients once they have left anything to avoid that internal agony.
I see patients from all walks; junior doctors, advertising executives, bus drivers, students, single parents; the list goes on. What unites all of these people is their inability - or felt perception - to cope. When you strip away the technical jargon, the complex theories, you can reduce
Or let’s take the 58-year-old bus driver; he can’t cope with rude passengers; he can’t cope with long shifts, the traffic, his demanding boss, his small pay check that has to feed his family, the rapidly changing London that he once knew. All of these things leave him feeling