What Is a CBT Counsellor and What Is Their Role?

I’m Allan Kelly, a BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor and CBT Therapist who offers CBT Therapy online.

A CBT counsellor is someone who could be trained in CBT only or a therapist like myself who uses it as part of an Integrative therapy which also incorporates other therapeutic models of which, believe it or not, there are about 500!

You can find a therapist by looking at one of the therapist listing sites such as BACP→ where you can search for a therapist by area and by the therapeutic models they use including CBT.

What is the role of a CBT therapist?

The role of a CBT counsellor is that as a skilled helper. The CBT counsellor does not judge the issues/problems that you bring to therapy but rather he or she listens attentively with full focus to understand you and your concerns.

He or she might challenge some of the ways you think about things, might suggest different ways of thinking about them and might also suggest certain changes in behaviour, the things you do and how you do them, which could make a positive difference and help you feel better.

Think of CBT counselling as a collaboration rather than teacher and pupil – it is a joint endeavour.

What is the difference between CBT and counselling?

CBT Therapy is just one form of counselling. The terms counselling and therapy are interchangeable and a counsellor can use either only CBT or like myself can incorporate CBT as part of their tool kit. I am an Integrative counsellor which means that I integrate various different therapeutic tools into my work with my clients and one of these tools is CBT.

CBT is one of the tools which counsellors use to help the people they work with (their ‘clients’) feel better and lead happier, more fulfilling lives. A counsellor can either use CBT on its own (one tool only) or as part of an integrative therapy it can be one of many tools which counsellors use when helping their clients. Both are part of the group of therapies known as the ‘Talking Therapies’.

Typically, for 50 minutes a week you would come and talk to your therapist and for the rest of the week you would think about what you have discussed, maybe do some homework and also turn what you have talked about in those 50 minutes into some kind of action. For example, reducing your two mid-morning chocolate biscuits to only one. It seems simple, maybe even too simple, but the fact is that for the vast majority of people it can make a huge, positive difference to them. It can transform people’s lives.