Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Training Courses.

CBT Essentials (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).

A 3-day course.

The UK's favourite introduction to this powerful, evidence-based technique.

Now in its latest form this course has introduced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to thousands of people in the UK ever since 1983. It addresses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in a way that you can use after the course. It covers: the history and meaning of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, conceptualising cases in CBT terms, the format of a standard CBT session, and the most important CBT techniques. All in a way that applies it constantly to practical examples.

The CBT Masterclass.

A 3-day course.

This is a course for people who have at least 6 months practice subsequent to receiving Level 3 APT-Accreditation (often much more).

In lectures, the masterclass provides more depth on some of the topics in the Essentials course but is mainly focused on developing skill, based around the following components: listening to and making case presentations, watching video demos by others, role-play/real-play where you interview others and they interview you, and establishing a stable system for support and development for yourself in this area post course. The result is that you enhance your skill and technique, not just your knowledge. Successful completion also gains you APT's Level 4 accreditation in the subject.

10-minute CBT: The BITS™ Course.

A 2-day course.

Many of the best professionals working in mental health and related fields rarely sit down for formal 45 minute sessions with their clients. Rather, the way they work is much more suited to informal interactions lasting a few minutes and taking place as and when it is convenient. Unfortunately, sometimes these interactions rarely get beyond the "How are things going?" stage. The BITS 10-minute therapy approach takes the view that many clients value these occasional, brief and informal interactions very highly. Hence the BITS 10-minute approach has been developed as an interface between the majority of professionals who need to work this way and the majority of clients who rather like this way of working.

CBT Plus, with Depression.

A 3-day course.

Depression is often referred to as "the common cold" of mental health - it is very common and we haven't always been very good at treating it. CBT's original application was with depression, NICE guidelines recommend CBT for depression and CBT is clearly one of the front-running interventions for depression. This module is designed to cover the relevant CBT techniques in a way that encourages you to use them subsequently and empowers you to help most people who are depressed.

CBT Plus, with Anxiety.

A 3-day course.

'Worry' is the epitome on non-productive distress, because although it is by definition distressing, it also impairs the person's ability to resolve any problems that realistically underlie the worry. Equally, some people find that they have simply acquired the 'habit' of worrying, and as soon as one problem is resolved will find 'another peg to hang their worry on'. And finally there is the concept of 'stress'. Which on this course we define as the pressure put on the person who may or may not suffer sdistressing worry as a result: some individuals seem to acquire a much greater ability to cope with 'stress' than others do.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

A 3-day course.

Mindfulness, and, more recently, mindfulness-based CBT, have had a major - and welcome - impact on the therapeutic world.

This course concentrates much more on Mindfulness than it does on CBT. So it explains why Mindfulness meditation is likely help recurrently depressed people, looks briefly at the published evidence that confirms that it can, and the NICE guidelines that commend it, but spends most of the time in experiential exercises and in discussing those exercises. There is a small amount of lecture input, but listening to lectures on Mindfulness is not a sensible pastime so the course focuses on understanding Mindfulness, acquiring the ability to practise Mindfulness meditation, and the ability to convey it to others.

CBT for Panic.

A 2-day course.

Panic is devastating for those who suffer from it, and the techniques for dealing with it are specific to it and very effective. 

Panic is underrated by those who have never experienced it. Typically, it virtually disables the person during the attack; they feel as though they are seriously ill, cannot see properly, and may not be able to control themselves. It is usually associated with agoraphobia as the sufferer does not wish to venture far from 'safety'. This course aims to cover the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy strategies both for panic and related agoraphobia.

CBT for OCD.

A 2-day course.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder usually takes over the sufferer's life, and it is the behavioural element of CBT that come to the fore in treating it.

An obsession is where the person has a fixed idea that is distressing (e.g. that their hands are contaminated and will lead to a serious illness or death) and a compulsion to perform a particular behaviour (in this case, probably to wash their hands). This often has a ritualistic nature to it (e.g. to wash 3 times) and the whole syndrome can devastate a person's life both in terms of time, relationships, and finances. This course covers the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy solutions to OCD.

CBT Plus, for Anger and Violence.

A 3-day course.

This is the new version of APT's Anger Management course, focusing on working with individuals (and groups) who are habitually angry and sometimes violent. It examines the potential problems of working with aggression, but principally focuses on strategies for helping people with such problems overcome their anger and violence.

CBT Plus, with Alcohol & Substance Misuse.

A 3-day course.

When use of mood altering substances gets out of control it ruins the person's life - until we help them regain control.

The maladaptive use of mood altering substances (importantly, including alcohol) may easily devastate the life of the user and of those around them. Although onset may be insidious the effect can be far reaching and difficult to reverse without skilled and determined intervention. This course covers the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy solutions.

Trauma-Focused CBT, for all ages.

A 3-day course.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is literally a life changing disorder. It is famously difficult to treat, yet Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can produce impressive results.

Experiencing a life-threatening event can leave the person with effects including: persistently re-experiencing the event (e.g. intrusive thoughts and images of it), a numbing of general responsiveness (e.g. less interest in significant activities and a feeling of detachment from others), persistent hyperarousal (e.g. difficulty sleeping, irritability, exaggerated startle response) adding up to significant distress or impaired functioning. This course examines effective Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based interventions (a) to ameliorate these effects and (b) to greatly improve the patient's quality of life where some effects cannot be mitigated.

The ADDRESS^® Course for working with Personality Disorder.

A 3-day course.

A powerful integrated package for working effectively with personality disorder.

This course combines relevant aspects of Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Motivational Interviewing to form a powerful and systematic intervention for personality disorder. It highlights the problem behaviours associated with personality disorder, how to conceptualise those behaviours in specific cases, how to facilitate insight and motivation in the patient, and how to generate change strategies. Importantly it also gives participants a chance to practise applying them to prepared scenarios.

CBT Plus, for Suicide Prevention.

A 3-day course.

There is more to working with suicidality than risk assessment and management, and having mastered those, we need then to be able to help people to build lives that are much more rewarding. It is unrealistic to think we can create lives that are completely free of suffering, but perfectly realistic to help create lives that are worth suffering for. And this 3-day course strives to achieve just that.

Some professionals become anxious about seeing patients who are suicidal, so what this course aims to do is to help us become relaxed and optimistic about seeing suicidal people, because we will know how to give them hope, and how to deliver as well as possible on that hope.

CBT with Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: There Must be a Better Way^®

A 2-day course.

Stopping self harm and replacing it with something better.

The title of this course captures the philosophy behind it. Self-harm, though inexplicable to anyone who has never felt the urge to harm themselves, normally serves a very clear purpose. The secret of success is, therefore, to identify that purpose and achieve it in a less traumatic way. Simple in theory, far from simple in practice, this course examines exactly how to achieve it successfully.

CBT for Working with Offenders.

A 3-day course. (2-day version also available.)

CBT for Working with Offenders gives a clear framework in which to analyse and work with most offenders.

It is an approach that is increasingly being recognised as giving very good results when well delivered. An underlying principle is that the offenders' behaviour (like that of everyone) depends largely on the five Be-BEST factors involved in modern Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. If we can change those factors then we can usually also change the offending. This course aims to provide those working with offenders with sufficient knowledge of a cognitive approach to enable them to apply it safely to their caseload.

CBT Plus, for lifestyle issues affecting mental and physical wellbeing.

A 3-day course.

This course describes an organised way of helping people to recognise their lifestyle problems and to do something about them.

Principally it addresses behaviour about which the client has mixed feelings: drinking and substance misuse for example, and a whole array of issues relating to common mental and physical health problems as well. Issues from taking psychoactive medication through to, in particular, sleeping, exercising and eating more healthily can all be addressed actively and constructively.

Graded Exposure Therapy.

A 1-day course.

This is a 1-day input designed for mental health professionals.

The course covers how to apply exposure therapy – especially graded exposure – and what conditions it works well for. It also covers the pitfalls to avoid, and the conditions it usually doesn’t work well for. Those who attend the course receive a certificate to verify the fact, and accreditation that allows them access to any resources associated with the course.

CBT Plus, with ADHD: intervention across the ages, from children to adults.

A 3-day course.

Powerful psychosocial interventions to help people with ADHD, and those around them.

ADHD has until recently been diagnosed mainly in children and young people, but it often persists into adulthood and even later life. Rarely if ever do adults acquire ADHD spontaneously, without having had it earlier, although many adults were too young for it to have been a diagnosis when they were children. For these reasons, this course takes a comprehensive view of ADHD, so you can help people no matter what their age. Its main focus is to detail effective psychosocial interventions that are available for those with ADHD and also those around them, whether young or old.

Extended Training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

66 hours.

Providing 66 hours of training, this training has a flexible structure that allows you to tailor the content to the group needs. Successful completion leads to APT’s Level 4 accreditation.

The way the system works is that you choose one course from each of three Groups A, B and C, and also attend The CBT Masterclass, making a total of four courses. Three of the courses will be 3-day courses, whereas Group C courses are 2-days, so it is a total of 11 days. The format whereby you choose your first three courses ensures that you have a good degree of ‘personalisation’ and the groupings of the courses ensures equally that you obtain a good ‘across the board’ coverage of CBT approaches in different areas.

CBT Accreditation.

The Association for Psychological Therapies offers various levels of accreditation to professionals who have completed APT training (or similar).

CBT FAQs.

View the most frequently asked questions about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (e.g. "What is CBT?" and "How does CBT work?").