Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in Petersfield, Hampshire
Evidence-Based CBT for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, Panic Attacks, Health Anxiety, Stress, Low Self-Esteem and More.
Feeling caught in patterns of anxiety, worry, self-criticism or low mood can be exhausting.
You may find yourself overthinking situations, expecting the worst, avoiding things that make you anxious or repeatedly responding in ways that provide temporary relief but leave you feeling even more stuck over time.
You may understand logically that your worries are unlikely to come true or that your self-critical thoughts are unfair. Yet despite recognising this, the same thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and behaviours continue to return.
This is because our minds naturally develop patterns. Repeated experiences can also shape deeper beliefs about ourselves, other people and the world, influencing how we interpret and respond to new situations. These patterns can become automatic, making it difficult to react differently even when we genuinely want to change.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, commonly known as CBT, is one of the most extensively researched psychological therapies available.
It helps you understand the patterns of thinking and behaviour that may be maintaining your difficulties and supports you in developing more balanced, flexible and helpful ways of responding.
As a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, I provide Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Petersfield, Hampshire, as well as secure online CBT for adults throughout the UK.
I work with adults experiencing anxiety disorders, depression, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, health anxiety, stress, perfectionism, low self-esteem and a wide range of other emotional and psychological difficulties.
What Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is an evidence-based psychological therapy that helps people understand the relationship between their:
- Thoughts
- Emotions
- Physical sensations
- Behaviours
- Underlying assumptions and beliefs
The central idea behind CBT is that these different areas continuously influence one another.
When we become caught in an unhelpful cycle, our thoughts may increase emotional distress, our emotions may affect how we behave and our behaviour may unintentionally reinforce the very difficulty we are trying to overcome.
For example, avoiding something that makes us anxious may bring immediate relief. However, it can also prevent us from discovering that we could have managed the situation, causing the anxiety to remain or become stronger.
CBT helps identify and gradually change these self-maintaining cycles.
It is a collaborative, structured and goal-focused therapy. Rather than simply discussing problems, we work together to understand what is keeping them going and develop practical strategies that can be applied in everyday life.
The aim is not only to reduce current symptoms, but also to help you develop skills and understanding that you can continue using after therapy has ended.
CBT is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for a wide range of mental health difficulties and has one of the strongest evidence bases of any talking therapy.
How Does CBT Work?
Our thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and behaviours are closely interconnected. A change in one area can affect all the others.
Imagine someone preparing to give a presentation at work.
They may think:
“I am going to embarrass myself.”
This thought might lead to:
- Anxiety
- A racing heart
- Muscle tension
- Feeling sick
- Difficulty concentrating
In response, they may:
- Avoid the presentation
- Speak as little as possible
- Overprepare for hours
- Repeatedly seek reassurance
- Leave immediately afterwards
- Analyse everything they said
These behaviours may reduce anxiety in the short term.
However, they can also prevent the person from learning that they could have coped, that other people may not have judged them negatively or that making a mistake would have been manageable.
The brain therefore continues to interpret presentations as threatening, making anxiety more likely the next time.
This is an example of a self-maintaining cycle.
CBT helps you recognise these cycles, understand why they developed and gradually test out different ways of thinking and responding. As these patterns begin to change, many people experience improvements in confidence, mood, emotional wellbeing and their ability to cope with difficult situations.
How Unhelpful Cycles Develop
One of the most common misconceptions about CBT is that it is simply about “thinking positively.”
In reality, emotional difficulties are often maintained by a combination of thoughts, behaviours, physical responses and deeply held beliefs that reinforce one another over time.
For example:
- Avoiding situations may reduce anxiety temporarily but strengthen it in the longer term.
- Seeking reassurance may provide immediate relief but prevent confidence and tolerance of uncertainty from developing.
- Self-criticism may feel motivating but often increases shame, anxiety and low mood.
- Perfectionism can create a sense of control while contributing to procrastination, stress and burnout.
- Withdrawing from enjoyable or meaningful activities may feel easier when we are depressed but can deepen low mood and isolation.
- Repeated checking may reduce doubt briefly but make the urge to check even stronger in the future.
Over time, these responses can become automatic. We may find ourselves repeating the same patterns without consciously choosing them, leaving us feeling stuck despite our efforts to change.
CBT does not approach these patterns with blame. Instead, it helps us understand how they developed and why they may once have felt necessary or protective.
Together, we examine what is maintaining the difficulty and develop practical ways to interrupt the cycle, creating opportunities for new learning and lasting psychological change.
What Can Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Help With?
CBT can be adapted to help with a wide range of emotional and psychological difficulties.
Although it is particularly well known as a treatment for anxiety and depression, it can also be helpful whenever patterns of thinking, behaviour, avoidance, checking, reassurance seeking or self-criticism are contributing to distress.
Anxiety
Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people seek CBT.
When we feel anxious, it is natural to overestimate danger while underestimating our ability to cope. This can lead to cycles of worry, avoidance, reassurance seeking, checking and constant vigilance.
CBT helps you understand the patterns maintaining your anxiety and gradually develop ways of responding that build confidence rather than reinforce fear.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder
People experiencing Generalised Anxiety Disorder often describe feeling as though their mind is constantly searching for the next problem.
Worries may move from one area of life to another, including health, work, finances, family, relationships or the future. Even when one worry is resolved, another may quickly take its place.
This can make it difficult to relax, concentrate or enjoy the present moment.
CBT helps you understand the processes that maintain excessive worry, develop a healthier relationship with uncertainty and respond more effectively to anxious predictions.
Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder
Panic attacks can feel frightening and overwhelming.
Physical sensations such as a racing heart, dizziness, breathlessness or feeling detached may be interpreted as signs of losing control, fainting, having a heart attack or “going crazy.”
Fear of another panic attack can then lead to avoidance, monitoring of physical sensations and increasing restrictions on everyday life.
CBT helps you understand the body’s threat response, reduce catastrophic interpretations of physical sensations and gradually rebuild confidence in situations you may have started to avoid.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety commonly involves a fear of being judged, criticised, embarrassed, rejected or negatively evaluated by other people.
You may avoid conversations, meetings, presentations or social events, even though you would like to take part. You may also rely on safety behaviours such as rehearsing what to say, avoiding eye contact or speaking very little.
CBT helps identify the self-conscious thoughts and safety behaviours maintaining social anxiety and supports you in developing greater confidence in social situations.
Health Anxiety
Health anxiety can involve persistent worries about illness despite medical reassurance or normal investigations.
You may repeatedly check your body, research symptoms online, seek reassurance from family or healthcare professionals or avoid information and situations connected with illness.
Although these strategies can reduce anxiety briefly, they often increase preoccupation and doubt over time.
CBT helps you break cycles of checking and reassurance seeking, consider symptoms more realistically and develop greater confidence in managing uncertainty about health.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder involves intrusive and unwanted thoughts, images, doubts or urges, known as obsessions.
These are often accompanied by repetitive behaviours or mental rituals, known as compulsions, which are performed to reduce anxiety, prevent harm or obtain certainty.
Although compulsions may provide temporary relief, they reinforce the importance of the obsession and strengthen the cycle over time.
CBT for OCD usually includes Exposure and Response Prevention. This involves gradually facing feared thoughts, situations or uncertainty while reducing compulsive responses.
Therapy helps you develop a different relationship with intrusive thoughts, tolerate uncertainty and regain greater freedom in everyday life.
Depression
Depression affects much more than mood.
You may experience reduced motivation, loss of enjoyment, hopelessness, self-criticism, withdrawal, difficulties concentrating and changes in sleep or appetite.
As activity and social contact decrease, there are fewer opportunities for enjoyment, achievement and connection, which can deepen low mood.
CBT helps identify the thinking and behavioural patterns maintaining depression. Therapy may include gradually rebuilding meaningful activity, addressing self-critical thoughts and developing more balanced and compassionate ways of viewing yourself and your future.
Stress and Burnout
Prolonged stress can leave you feeling mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted.
You may find it difficult to switch off, set boundaries or recover between periods of pressure. Patterns such as perfectionism, over-responsibility and placing other people’s needs above your own may also contribute.
CBT helps identify the beliefs and behaviours driving ongoing stress and supports you in developing healthier boundaries, coping strategies and more sustainable ways of managing demands.
Low Self-Esteem
Low self-esteem often develops through repeated experiences and can be maintained by self-criticism, avoidance, comparison with others and discounting personal strengths or achievements.
You may hold yourself to standards you would never expect of anyone else or interpret mistakes as evidence that you are inadequate.
CBT helps identify and test these negative beliefs, recognise self-critical patterns and develop a more balanced, realistic and compassionate view of yourself.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism is sometimes viewed as a strength, but it can become distressing when your self-worth depends heavily on achievement or avoiding mistakes.
You may set unrealistically high standards, spend excessive amounts of time checking your work, procrastinate because a task feels overwhelming or struggle to feel satisfied with anything you achieve.
CBT helps you develop more flexible and sustainable standards, reduce fear of mistakes and maintain ambition without sacrificing your wellbeing.
Insomnia and Sleep Difficulties
Sleep problems can be maintained by worry, irregular sleep patterns and increasing anxiety about the consequences of not sleeping.
The more pressure you place on yourself to sleep, the more alert and frustrated you may become.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia, often called CBT-I, focuses on changing the thoughts and habits that interfere with sleep and rebuilding a healthier association between bed and rest.
Phobias
Specific phobias involve an intense fear of a particular object, animal, medical procedure or situation.
Common examples include fear of flying, driving, needles, heights, vomiting or certain animals.
Avoidance may provide immediate relief but prevents the brain from learning that the feared situation can be managed.
CBT uses gradual and carefully planned exposure to help you reduce anxiety, build confidence and regain freedom in areas of life that fear may have restricted.
Living With Long-Term Health Conditions
Living with a long-term physical health condition can have a considerable emotional impact.
You may experience uncertainty, fear, frustration, grief, pain, fatigue or changes in your identity and independence.
CBT cannot remove the medical condition itself. However, it can help you manage its emotional effects, respond differently to distressing thoughts and maintain meaningful activities and quality of life alongside medical treatment.
CBT Is About More Than Positive Thinking
CBT does not ask you to replace every negative thought with a positive one.
Some situations are genuinely difficult. Some fears may be understandable and some painful thoughts may contain an element of truth.
The aim is to examine whether your current way of thinking is accurate, balanced and helpful, rather than automatically accepting every thought as a fact.
Sometimes therapy involves considering a situation from a different perspective. At other times, the most powerful change comes from altering what you do.
For example, gradually approaching a situation you have been avoiding may build confidence more effectively than repeatedly telling yourself not to feel anxious.
CBT therefore focuses on both thinking and behaviour. It helps you test predictions, develop new experiences and respond with greater flexibility.
The longer-term aim is to help you become your own therapist, equipped with practical strategies and a clearer understanding of how to respond when difficulties arise in the future.
My Integrative CBT Approach
CBT provides a strong evidence-based framework for understanding and changing patterns of thinking and behaviour.
However, no two people are the same, and not everyone’s difficulties fit neatly into a single therapeutic model.
As a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, I take an integrative approach. CBT may provide the foundation for our work, but I can also draw upon Schema Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, DBT-informed approaches and EMDR where clinically appropriate.
This can be particularly helpful when difficulties are longstanding, connected with early experiences or accompanied by strong patterns of shame, self-criticism, emotional overwhelm or difficulties within relationships.
Depending on your needs, our work may therefore involve:
- Understanding and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviours
- Exploring deeper beliefs and longstanding emotional patterns
- Developing greater self-compassion
- Strengthening emotional awareness and regulation
- Building distress-tolerance skills
- Processing difficult or traumatic experiences
- Developing healthier ways of relating to yourself and others
This allows therapy to be tailored to your needs rather than requiring you to fit into a rigid treatment protocol.
My aim is to identify the most appropriate evidence-based approach for your difficulties and help you create meaningful, sustainable change.
What Happens During CBT?
CBT is a collaborative and active form of therapy.
Rather than simply talking about problems, we work together to understand what may be maintaining them and develop practical strategies for change.
The Stages of CBT
Every person’s therapy is different, but the process often includes the following stages.
Assessment and Formulation
We begin by developing a thorough understanding of your current difficulties, personal history, strengths and therapy goals.
Together, we explore how your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, behaviours and underlying beliefs interact.
This shared psychological understanding is known as a formulation. It helps us make sense of why the problem developed, what may be keeping it going and where change is likely to be most helpful.
Your formulation is personal to you and guides the focus of therapy.
Identifying Patterns
As therapy progresses, we begin to recognise the patterns that may be keeping you stuck.
These may include:
- Catastrophising
- Black-and-white thinking
- Excessive self-criticism
- Avoidance
- Reassurance seeking
- Checking
- Perfectionism
- Procrastination
- Withdrawal
- Rumination
- Unhelpful coping strategies
Understanding these patterns is often an important first step towards changing them.
Developing New Skills and Responses
We then develop and practise strategies to help you respond differently.
Depending on your needs, therapy may include:
- Identifying and evaluating unhelpful thoughts
- Developing more balanced perspectives
- Behavioural experiments
- Gradual exposure to feared situations
- Exposure and Response Prevention
- Behavioural activation
- Problem-solving
- Reducing reassurance seeking and checking
- Emotion-regulation strategies
- Mindfulness-based techniques
- Self-compassion exercises
- Practical exercises between sessions
These strategies create opportunities for new learning. Over time, old patterns can become less powerful while healthier responses become easier and more natural.
Consolidating Lasting Change
Towards the later stages of therapy, we focus on strengthening the progress you have made.
We review which strategies have been most helpful, identify possible future triggers and develop a plan for responding to setbacks.
The aim is not to ensure that you never experience difficult thoughts or emotions again. Instead, it is to help you feel more confident in your ability to understand and manage them.
Is CBT Right for Me?
CBT may be helpful if you:
- Feel trapped in repetitive patterns of worry or overthinking
- Experience anxiety, panic attacks or persistent stress
- Struggle with low mood or depression
- Notice that avoidance is limiting your life
- Become caught in cycles of checking or reassurance seeking
- Experience intrusive thoughts or obsessive worries
- Struggle with self-criticism, low self-esteem or perfectionism
- Want practical and evidence-based strategies
- Prefer a collaborative and structured approach to therapy
- Want to understand why your difficulties continue despite your efforts to change
CBT is not necessarily the right approach for everyone or for every difficulty.
During our initial consultation and assessment, we can consider whether CBT is likely to meet your needs or whether another approach, or an integration of different therapies, may be more appropriate.
What Working With Me Looks Like
Why Work With Dr Sonney Gullu-McPhee?
Choosing the right therapist is an important decision.
You may be looking not only for someone with appropriate clinical training, but also for a therapist with whom you feel safe, understood and able to speak openly.
As a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, I combine extensive clinical training with more than 15 years of experience supporting adults with a wide range of psychological difficulties.
Professional Qualifications and Experience
- Chartered Clinical Psychologist
- Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council
- Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society
- Doctorate-level training in Clinical Psychology
- ISST Certified Advanced Schema Therapist
- EMDR Europe Trained Therapist
- More than 15 years of clinical experience
- Experience supporting adults with anxiety, depression, OCD, trauma, low self-esteem, perfectionism, relationship difficulties and other psychological challenges
- In-person appointments in Petersfield, Hampshire
- Secure online therapy for adults across the UK
I integrate Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Schema Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, DBT-informed approaches and EMDR where appropriate.
My aim is to provide a thoughtful and compassionate therapeutic space where you feel understood, supported and empowered to create lasting psychological change.
Arrange a Free Initial Consultation
If you are considering Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and would like to explore whether it may be the right approach for you, I offer a free 15-minute initial consultation.
This gives us an opportunity to briefly discuss your current difficulties, answer any initial questions and consider whether CBT or another therapeutic approach may be the best fit for your needs.
Seeking therapy can feel like a significant step. My aim is to provide a warm, collaborative and non-judgemental space where you feel understood and supported.
Whether you are struggling with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, OCD, stress, low self-esteem, perfectionism or another emotional difficulty, we can develop a treatment plan tailored to your individual goals and circumstances.
In-person appointments: Petersfield, Hampshire
Secure online therapy: Adults throughout the UK
Is CBT effective?
CBT is one of the most extensively researched psychological therapies available.
It is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for a range of difficulties, including anxiety disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder and insomnia.
Its effectiveness will depend on factors such as the nature and complexity of your difficulties, your goals and how actively you are able to engage with the therapeutic process.
Is CBT just about positive thinking?
No.
CBT does not encourage you to ignore difficulties or replace every negative thought with a positive one.
Instead, it helps you examine whether your thoughts are accurate, balanced and helpful. It also considers how your behaviour may be reinforcing distress.
The aim is to develop more flexible and effective ways of responding, rather than forcing yourself to think positively.
Will I be given homework?
CBT often includes practical exercises between sessions because much of the change happens through applying new skills in everyday situations.
These may include monitoring patterns, practising a coping strategy, testing a prediction or gradually approaching something you have been avoiding.
Any between-session work is agreed collaboratively and tailored to your goals. It is not about completing tasks perfectly, but about creating opportunities to practise and learn.
How many CBT sessions will I need?
The number of sessions varies according to your goals, the nature of the difficulty and how long it has been present.
Some people benefit from a relatively brief and focused course of CBT. Others with more complex or longstanding difficulties may benefit from longer-term therapy or an integrative approach.
We will review your progress regularly and discuss the expected length and focus of therapy together.
Can CBT help if my difficulties have been present for many years?
Yes.
Although CBT is often described as present-focused, it can also help with longstanding difficulties.
Where early experiences or deeper patterns are particularly important, I may integrate Schema Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy or other evidence-based approaches alongside CBT.
This allows us to work both with current maintaining cycles and with the underlying beliefs and emotional patterns that may have developed over time.
Can CBT be delivered online?
Yes.
CBT can be provided effectively both in person and online.
I offer secure online CBT to adults throughout the UK, using the same personalised, collaborative and evidence-based approach as face-to-face therapy.
Book a free 15-minute consultation to explore whether CBT is the right approach for you.
References
Beck, J. S. (2021). Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
Butler, A. C., Chapman, J. E., Forman, E. M., and Beck, A. T. (2006). The empirical status of cognitive-behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Clinical Psychology Review, 26(1), 17 – 31.
Cuijpers, P., Cristea, I. A., Karyotaki, E., et al. (2016). How effective are cognitive behavior therapies for major depression and anxiety disorders? A meta-analytic update of the evidence. World Psychiatry, 15(3), 245 – 258.
Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J. J., Sawyer, A. T., and Fang, A. T. (2012). The efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36, 427 – 440.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Clinical guidelines relating to anxiety disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and insomnia.