The framework describes the various
activities which need to be brought together in order to carry out CBT
effectively, and in line with best practice.
It is helpful to bear in mind that CBT is guided by a knowledge base
and a philosophy, and that its techniques flow from this. Practitioners
need to understand the rationale for what they are doing, and not treat
CBT as a set of techniques. One of the most important features of CBT is
that it is intended to be collaborative - the client is encouraged to
share responsibility for the work, and to be an active co-participant in
their therapy. A second principle is that, although a structured
therapy, it works best if therapists consistently maintain a sense that
clients need to understand themselves through a process of
‘guided-discovery', so that they find out about themselves for
themselves. This leads to third principle, which is that CBT should help
clients learn skills which enable them to cope with future adversity in
a more effective way.
CBT is an approach that is intended to help clients to take stock of
the way they behave and the way they think about themselves and others,
and to see whether there are alternative perspectives and actions that
could be more useful to them. It is not about correcting "faulty"
thoughts or thinking positively.
The framework locates competences across five domains. This is
intended to help users see how the various activities fit together. It
is not a hierarchical model, with some domains being more important or
requiring more skill than others. Any intervention will require
clinicians to bring together knowledge and skills from all domains. This
observation applies both to "low-intensity" intervention (such as
guided CBT self-help for depression) and to "high-intensity"
interventions (such as Beck's CBT model for depression).
The site contains
- background documents that explain how to use the framework
- a version for clinicians/ commissioners
- a version for service users
- the framework itself - the "map" of competences and the full list of competences
It is important to read the background documentation before making
use of the map and the competence, as this will help you to understand
the thinking behind the framework
Click here to visit the visit the CORE CBT Competences Site