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Therapy role-play · CBT
Also written Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy starts from a plain observation: thoughts, feelings, body sensations and behaviour feed one another, and together they keep a problem going long after whatever started it. The work is to map that cycle with the client, then change the parts that hold it in place. Every simulated client here is built on a published CBT model, so you practise the treatment as its protocol describes it, from the first formulation through a multi-session arc.
Why this therapy
Distress is often kept going less by events than by how we read them and what we do next. Someone who fears panic avoids the crowded shop, and the avoidance confirms the fear. Someone who ruminates feels they are working on the problem while sinking further into it. Avoidance, safety behaviours, rumination and unhelpful beliefs each take their turn. CBT goes after these cycles directly, with structure, agreed goals and measures you can both see. It is the most extensively researched of the psychotherapies.
Each protocol follows its published treatment model, and so does your feedback.
Simulated clients are a training aid. They do not replace supervised work with real clients.
Each one is reviewed in your debrief, with one concrete thing to try next time.
Agree the agenda with the client in the first few minutes, and leave room on it for last week’s homework. Sessions that skip this tend to drift, and the drift is visible in the debrief.
Ask the questions that let the client reach the conclusion themselves. Telling them is quicker, and it rarely holds.
Draw, with the client, a disorder-specific map of what keeps the problem going. If they cannot explain it back to you, it is not shared yet.
Turn a belief into a prediction the client can test between sessions, then review what actually happened, including the surprises.
Set a task that follows from what you did today, and open the next session by reviewing it. Homework that is set and never asked about teaches the client it did not matter.
Ask about risk in plain words, not “you’re not thinking of doing anything silly?”. When risk is there, build the safety plan in the same session rather than next week.
Take one recent, specific moment and draw out what went through the client’s mind, in words and in images, and what they felt. Check it back with them before you build on it.
The same client carries across modes. Start where you feel comfortable, then stretch.
Free examples
Worked examples from the Practice Library, built on the same published model.
Each client comes with a history, a presentation and measures. Read the referral as you would on placement, then begin.
The client responds to how you work. Make your mistakes here, where they cost nothing; hints come only if you ask for them.
A clear debrief on the core skills of your model (the CTS-R for CBT). Then take any one skill into a focused drill and work on it until it holds.
A structured, time-limited therapy that works on the thoughts and behaviours keeping a problem going. In US spelling it is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Depression, GAD, panic, social anxiety, health anxiety, OCD, PTSD, insomnia (CBT-I), adolescent depression, child anxiety, gaming disorder and safety planning, plus CPT and prolonged exposure for PTSD, trauma-focused CBT for young people, psychosis, bipolar disorder, eating disorders in adults, BDD, specific phobia, perinatal problems, adult ADHD, alcohol and gambling, chronic primary pain, MBCT and low-intensity CBT.
Against the 12 items of the Revised Cognitive Therapy Scale (CTS-R), each scored 0 to 6. An overall 36 of 72, an average of 3 or “competent”, is the threshold many UK CBT training courses use. Every observation comes with one concrete thing to try.
Practise CBT with us
Leave your details and our team will contact you on WhatsApp to set up your practice, answer your questions and find the right programme for you.
A short session in chat, with a brief call if you like. Apply for a scholarship at the same time.