Methodology

Learning new ways to perceive situations and difficulties, news ways of behaving and coping, so that you will feel better and bloom.

Each therapy is different because each client, whatever the age is unique and evolves at his/her own rhythm and has different needs.

The therapeutic approach used by our therapists is CBT (Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy).

Our team works with children, adolescents, adults as well as parent and families.

Our therapy sessions are mostly individual sessions but we also provide family, couples, parents sessions and therapeutics groups.

Cognitive-Behavioural Psychotherapy

A therapeutic relationship based on trust and collaboration 

A therapeutic relationship based on mutual trust is the pillar of the therapy.

The therapist provides:

• his/her social skills: empathy, active listening, human qualities, personality
• his/her knowledge: about the components and mechanisms which underlie the development and the maintenance of psychological difficulties
• his/her ability: relational, motivational, to communicate and apply the CBT therapeutic procedures and methodology in a tailor-made and creative way.

As the client evolves is in a secure relationship based on trust, he is encouraged and feels free to express his questions, doubts and disagreements throughout the therapy.

The therapist helps the client to express himself, to take initiatives as an independent, free and autonomous person, according to his abilities.

Therapists are bound by professional secrecy.

A transparent therapy

Therapy is clear, transparent as regards the goals to achieve, the procedures, work frame and the type of therapeutic relationship.

The therapeutic goals are agreed with the client.

Understanding the difficulties to better cope with them

CBT therapists consider informing their client as essential for the treatment, as understanding a problem enables the client to cope with his/her difficulties and disorders. For that reason, flyers and leaflets are available in our waiting room.

There are many leaflets and self-help books for patients written by CBT therapists.

Steps in the CBT methodology

Precisely identifying difficulties 

In order to grasp the real-life experience of the client in the most accurate way, the therapist will ask questions to explore with him:

• the reality of what he and his relatives are experiencing, by expressing, examining and observing:
• feelings, emotions
• physical sensations
• thoughts, beliefs, scenarios
• behaviours, attitudes, automatisms, vicious circles which result from them;
• the history, duration, frequency of the difficulties and their impact on the person’s life, the circumstances under which they appear;
• the strategies, resources and help used in the present and past to cope with these difficulties.

Summarising the interactions between problems 

The way the main difficulty interacts with other problems and life-events will be discussed and represented in a global diagram (called holistic theory).

Analysing the mechanisms that explain the development and the persistence of the difficulties 

The therapist will try to understand with the client how the more central difficulties which impair his daily life appeared, how they feed each other and become persistent (step called functional analysis).

Setting up goals and therapeutic strategies 

As a result of these different analyses, the client and therapist will set goals together and define individual therapeutic procedures.

Implementation of the therapeutic programme

With the active participation of the client, a range of cognitive-behavioural methods and interventions will be used to improve skills to develop, cognitive, behavioural and physiological responses that are more adapted strategies to alleviate distress and develop personal effectiveness.

In between sessions, the client will be encouraged to try things out, putting what has been learned into practice. This is referred to as “homework assignment”. Your therapist will not ask you to do things you don’t want to do. You decide the pace of the treatment and what you will and won’t try. Anytime during the therapy, you can choose to take a break or stop the treatment.

One of the CBT’s strengths is that you can continue to practice and develop your skills even after the sessions are finished. This makes it less likely that your symptoms or problems will return.

In close collaboration with your therapist you will have learned new ways to perceive situations and difficulties, news ways of behaving and coping, so that you will feel better and bloom. You will have acquired more efficiency and autonomy to be able to generalize your progress to other contexts and situations.

Evaluation and end of therapy

The treatment will be assessed at the end of therapy. Ways as to consolidate the skills and prevent relapses will be discussed.

Follow-up sessions (3 months, 6 months, 1 year) are agreed and planned at the end of therapy to help maintain progress or to re-boost the therapeutics interventions, if necessary.

Different forms of therapy 

• Therapy with children and adolescents is always carried out in collaboration with their relatives. Usually, the first sessions are held with parents, who will be invited to collaborate in regular meetings throughout the therapy, according to needs.
• For adolescents therapeutic groups are organised (in French): assertivity, self-esteem and self-confidence groups to help them deal with the stress of the exams and the fear of failure.
• During individual therapies for adults, the relatives (partner, children) can be invited for a couple of sessions. Co-therapy sessions can also be organised when several members are followed by therapists from the Centre. Each person will then attend with his own therapist.

Waiting time before the therapy starts 

Once you take the step and are willing to start a therapy, you might be impatient to start. We fully understand this and will try to respond as soon as possible in accordance to our availabilities. Since our therapeutic interventions are specialized and frequent, we cannot respond to urgent demands. In that case, contact close emergency services or your General Practitioner. Each therapist deals with his own waiting list, which varies from three weeks to three months, depending on the period.

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