# CBT - What should I expect?



## pumpkins (Jan 19, 2012)

I'm starting CBT in a little less then two weeks. Mostly for my ocd, but he said something about getting a social life too.

I've had counseling before, but never CBT. So what should I expect?


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## user12345 (Jan 10, 2012)

I'm going to copy a reply I said to someone else, because it was pretty detailed and I'd like to give you the same info as I did to the other person. I hope that's ok. 

Firstly, well done for making an appointment with a therapist. It is a difficult thing to do but you did it and took the first step and the initiative to seek help. 

Well let me tell you a bit about therapy. I have been in and out of therapy since I was 13. I am 20 now. For the last 2 years it has been intensive and I have done psychotherapy and am now doing CBT. Therapist do NOT judge. 

I would suggest that in the first session you tell your therapist a little bit about you. You tell them why you decided to seek out treatment, and what you hope to gain. 

Your therapist is there to help you the best that she can. CBT sessions usually revolve around your pattern of thinking, so there will be no "childhood" stuff and not a lot of digging around in your past. It will mostly be about what you think here and now, and how to change those thought patterns. 

Good luck and well done for doing this - everyone needs a little bit of help sometimes. If you therapist is not comfortable with your issues, she will refer you to someone else. A therapist I saw for one session told me the next session that she couldn't see me anymore because I reminded her too much of her daughter and she thought it wouldn't be helpful for me as she wouldn't remain objective. At that time it felt like a rejection but now some time has passed and I realise that it is great that I came into therapy with a list of questions that I wanted to ask her, about what she is comfortable dealing with, and she told me honestly without wasting my time. 

However this rarely happens. 

Best of luck. x

Also, except some homework and social exposure, as well as 'urge surfing' which is a technique I use frequently if I want to self harm. It means holding off on an OCD tendency for five minutes, and then if you still want to give in to it then you can. The next time you try ten minutes and so on. this helps me too. 

CBT has helped me with my social anxiety quite a lot!


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