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Welcome to the course

Hello and welcome to this five-week course: ‘Understanding Anxiety, Depression and CBT’. This course has been written by psychologists based at the Charlie Waller Institute at the University of Reading. …

Behavioural experiments: The case of Chris

A behavioural experiment could be devised collaboratively between Chris and his therapist to assess any of the identified thoughts highlighted in the previous Step, for example: People find me boring …

Expert view: thinking errors

We’ve just explored how thinking errors (or cognitive distortions) can often result in a negative vicious cycle or ‘loop’. This makes the low mood or anxiety worse and worse until …

What next?

Further sources of support and information There are a number of self-help resources which you may find useful if you are experiencing anxiety or depression or are supporting someone else …

Expert view: graded exposure

Graded exposure is, in brief is, a psychological technique developed to help people come face to face with their fears. It helps to break the kinds of vicious cycles we’ve …

Psychoeducation

Psychoeducation is a very important part of BA (Behavioural Activation) and should happen before a patient is asked to make any behavioural changes. It’s the role of the therapist to …

Addressing stereotypes in depression

Many people with mental health issues such as depression, report that misunderstanding and stigma make it more difficult to acknowledge their difficulties and seek any help (for fear of discrimination …

Expert View: A CBT model of depression

Watch Shirley explain how someone without depression might interpret an ambiguous situation (thoughts), and the types of feelings (emotional and physical) and behaviours which may occur. Shirley compares this with …

Expert view: a CBT model of anxiety

One of the key differences between those who experience significant anxiety in the form of an anxiety disorder and those who don’t, relates to how information around them is interpreted …

Expert view: What is CBT?

Please watch this video, where Professor Reynolds introduces you to CBT and explains how it can be delivered and what difficulties it can be used for. You’ll find out some …

Processing and making sense of the world

Perceiving the information available to us from our external environment is a complicated process and involves sensing the information that’s available around us, ie collecting this information via our sensory …