Behaviour Therapy

Behavioural therapy focuses very much on behaviour hence the name. It works to help you to get rid of disruptive or unpleasant behaviour that is impacting upon your life. Often used to help clients with mental health problems, your therapist might recommend it if you are having issues with phobias, anxiety or addictions.

Unlearning upsetting behaviour

Counsellors that practice behavioural therapy believe that we learn to behave in a certain way and can therefore unlearn what we don’t want to do. Working closely with you, your psychoanalyst will delve into your thoughts and innermost feelings in order to find out why you are behaving as you are. They may bring into play cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which will enable you to change your behaviour by making use of certain techniques and altering your way of thinking. Exploring events from you past will be important to ensure that your therapy goes well. Examining these will enable your counsellor to look at how they impact upon current behaviour and how it can be changed.

Learn new behaviour

Behavioural therapy will be used to show you how to learn new behaviour that will be positive and not damaging or upsetting. Counsellors often bring into play certain disciplines such as:

• Applied behavioural analysis – your behaviour is changed using positive reinforcement and conditioning.
• Cognitive behavioural therapy – a combination of behavioural and cognitive therapy.
• Social learning theory – this focuses on learning and our innate ability to imitate.

Behavioural therapy can help with many types of worrying behaviour including OCD, addictions, phobias and anxiety.

If you would like us to put you in touch with a counsellor or analyst that makes use of behavioural therapy, fill in the form below. We will identify a practitioner that is suitable for you and who will be able to assist.