A friend of mine went to see a therapist between 2014 and 2015. They had signed up for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT) at a Therapy centre in central London. It was a chance conversation I had with my friend…for me to realise no CBT had been carried out after nearly a whole year of very expensive therapy at Harley Street….even though that is what my friend had requested. No assessment forms, not even the basic hot cross buns on the first or second session. No assessments as the sessions went on.
It was such a waste of money. My friend’s depression has worsened in therapy. To pay such an enormous amount of money a session over such a long period of time to get the CBT they wanted and then to get no CBT…..I thought that was rediculous. I advised they stop and look elsewhere for real CBT therapy.
SInce then I have discovered many therapists say they do CBT in order to charge more but in reality just give a riff-raff and hodge podge of pseudo CBT. The therapist may have attended a short CBT course and then after the course just go back to what they were doing in the first place. If you are looking for CBT do check with whosoever you do go to to; if they do the basics in CBT therapy – the assessments, the hot cross bun, thought records and more….that is what has led to CBT being efficacious. Studies and research were not carried out on pseudo CBT, they were carried out on CBT with the set methods and approaches. The thousands of studies and research in CBT have shown that for results to happen and to continue, adherence to the CBT model is important. I can see why things can be varied. Some people have certain disorders and with those I do work slightly differently, in different time frames to the established CBT protocols but overall they are the same. It is working with another human being, the knowledge that each individual has their ; own timing, own resources, own lives and future to move towards……
PS. The same applies to Hypnotherapy, NLP, Gestalt, Psychodynamic, Psychoanalytic and more….if you look for a therapist in that particular area of specialism…then it is not unreasonable to expect the therapist to give you the treatment and expertise in that particular area.
©2015 Yasmin
Dr Yaz Headley 
There really is more than one way to do things…. When a therapist is trained in CBT it does not mean they will do it they way others think it is best done. This does not make them wrong, just different from the point of view you are presenting. I do not think money has anything to do with it.
Being flexible as a therapist and an artist is often what is required to assist people to move forward on their life’s path.
Hi, Thank you for your post. Yes, there are many ways to do something and therapy is really an integration of culture, beliefs, and more….but my thoughts are that when a client looks for a CBT therapist they should get a CBT therapist. In the UK money has alot to do with it. Charges are much higher for CBT because there is an expectation therapists will be trained in CBT, receive supervision in CBT and adhere to the CBT model and guidelines recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).