As anyone who knows me is already aware, I can bore for England on the subject of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) a topic which has fascinated me since I first came across it via the Layard Report.  It’s in the news again today. CBT interests me for lots of reasons, but primarily because I’m interested in how our minds work and because it has some similarities with the kind of consultancy I do.  One of the the main principles of CBT is helping users to become their own therapist.  My work doesn’t involve providing therapy, but I do help clients to apply various ways of structuring their thinking to improving their organisations, so that they can become their own management consultants.

I should stress that I’m not an expert in the topic but I would highly recommend this book (and its recently published workbook) to anyone with an interest in our mental life.

I think an awareness of the principles of CBT could be useful for everyone, not least because it might help to reduce the incidence of mental illness.  At present, so far as I’m aware, those responsible for our health systems do very little which is aimed at preventing mential illness.  We’re forever being told how to stay physically healthy, but don’t get much advice on staying mentally healthy as well.  Why is that?

The title of this post really sums up what CBT is about, to my mind.  I’ll let you think about it.