Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in Guelph
CBT for teens, students, and adults working on anxiety and low mood
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a practical form of talk therapy that you have probably already heard of. It’s built on the idea that what you think, what you feel, and what you do are all connected.
Think of it this way… Your thoughts, feelings, and actions are all “wired together.” Move one and the others move. This is the CBT triangle, a core idea that shows how when one part changes, the others change too.
Have you ever woken up anxious and wondered why? Then when you seemingly couldn’t find a reason you became anxious about your anxiety? Or have you noticed a pit in your stomach, felt low and disconnected, and cancelled your plans as a result? You’re not alone. We've been there too.
CBT is built to give you a way out of these sticky loops. You learn to catch thoughts while they’re still happening and explore feelings as they pop up. This will help you challenge old behaviours that keep you stuck.
We won’t ask you to talk yourself out of something real. Instead, we’ll find the places where those loops have been adding their own false commentary to the facts, and we’ll work on those parts together.
-
CBT is a commonly used tool, so we might turn to it for lots of different situations:
Anxiety, worry loops and catastrophizing
Panic (and even the fear of the panic itself)
Low mood and depression
Perfectionism
Imposter syndrome, where the evidence that you’re enough doesn’t seem to count
Procrastination and avoidance
Lack of sleep because your brain won’t let go of the day
Health anxiety
-
We’ll start with one moment from your week. Maybe it’s an email you reread over and over before you sent it, or something you said at dinner and couldn’t stop thinking about.
We’ll slow that moment down and go through it one piece at a time. Then we’ll ask some questions about it. Is the thought true? What would you say to a friend who told you the same thing about themselves? Before you leave, we’ll agree on what you’ll try before the next session.
-
Maybe you’ve already tried CBT before, and even found it didn’t help much.
We’re here to shift that. Often, the thoughts and feelings we experience in the present actually started years earlier. That longer story is a lot of what we work on here.
If you've ever wondered how your past shows up in your present, we’re here when you’re ready.
Questions about CBT in Guelph
-
No, but they come from the same family of therapies. CBT helps you test whether an anxious thought is true. ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) helps you stop organizing your day around the thought, whether it’s true or not. We use both, sometimes in the same session.
-
Usually. You’ll leave with something small to try, and we’ll start the next session with how it went.
-
Yes, from age 11 up. We are client-led and tailor our sessions with teens in a way that truly lands with them.
-
Yes, Golden Horizons can meet virtually with you anywhere in Ontario or Alberta.
-
Yes. CBT is one of the most heavily researched talk therapies there is, and the Beck Institute, started by the doctor who developed it, publishes a clear account of cognitive behavioral therapy and the evidence behind it.
