Counselling Insights

What's the Difference Between Counselling and CBT?

If you've started looking into support for anxiety, low mood or a difficult time in your life, you've probably come across two terms that seem to get used interchangeably: counselling and CBT. Many people assume they're the same thing, or that one is simply a shorter version of the other.

They're not, and understanding the difference can make it much easier to choose the kind of support that's actually right for you.

What Is CBT?

CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It's a structured, goal focused approach that looks at the links between our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The idea is that unhelpful thinking patterns can create and maintain difficult emotions, so by noticing and challenging those patterns, we can begin to feel differently and respond differently too.

A typical course of CBT will usually:

• Focus on a specific problem, such as anxiety, panic attacks or low mood
• Follow a structured plan, often including homework between sessions
• Run for a set number of sessions, commonly between six and twelve
• Concentrate mainly on the present and future

CBT is the therapy most commonly offered through the NHS. If you've been referred through NHS Talking Therapies, this is very likely what you'll be offered, and for many people, especially with a clearly defined problem, it can be genuinely useful.

What Is Counselling?

Counselling covers a much broader way of working. As an integrative, person centred counsellor, I don't follow a fixed programme or a set number of sessions decided in advance. My work draws on a person centred approach, alongside other ways of understanding what's going on for you, adapted to what you personally need.

Person centred counselling starts from a different place than CBT. Rather than working towards a specific target using set techniques, it offers a warm, non judgemental space where you lead the direction of our conversations. The relationship between us is central to the work, not just a container for exercises. My belief, and the belief underpinning this approach, is that when someone feels truly understood, accepted and heard, they're able to find their own way through, at their own pace.

Being integrative simply means I'm not tied to one single model. I can draw on different ways of making sense of your experience, and adjust how we work together as things unfold, rather than fitting you into someone else's structure.

So What's Actually Different?

CBT tends to focus on a specific symptom, follows a clear plan, and works within a set number of sessions. Person centred counselling focuses on you as a whole person, is much more flexible in its pace and length, and pays close attention to feelings and experience, not only thoughts and behaviour.

Neither is better than the other. They're built for different things, and different people respond to different ways of working.

Why Might an Integrative, Person Centred Counsellor Be a Good Fit for You?

CBT has its place, and I've seen it help people with clearly defined difficulties. But it isn't the right fit for everyone, and it's worth knowing there are other ways to work.

You might find person centred counselling suits you better if:

Making the Choice That's Right for You

If you're weighing up your options, it can help to ask yourself what you're really hoping for. If you want a structured toolkit to manage a specific issue over a short, defined period, CBT through NHS Talking Therapies is a reasonable place to start. If you're looking for a space to be properly understood, to explore what's underneath the surface, and to work at your own pace with someone who sees you as a whole person rather than a set of symptoms, integrative, person centred counselling may suit you far better.

There's no need to choose based on what's quickest or most well known. The right therapy is simply the one that fits you.