Welcome to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Skills Groups
Are you dealing with a mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety or ADHD and wish you knew ways to better support yourself? Do you want to develop tools to help you cope better with your feelings, and live life more intentionally? Or are you a parent who wants to discover ways to better support your young child’s emotional growth?
We are here to support your learning.
We are a group of doctors who offer a series of psychoeducational and skills-training groups suitable for people with mild-to-moderate anxiety or depression (CBT Skills Foundations Group), ADHD (Skills for Success) and for parents of children age 0-6 (Raising Resilient Kids). Our programs are informative, empowering, and practical. You will develop awareness of your patterns of feeling, thinking and behaving, and be supported to make more intentional choices and build habits to improve your mental health.
Designed by psychiatrists and taught by physicians, these courses integrate neuroscience, mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy skills and concepts. Many have described them as like an “owner’s manual” for living as human beings. Courses are offered virtually and in-person (in some centres).
All programs are 8-week series, conducted in groups with up to 14 others. The groups are like classrooms, not therapy groups, but the support of the group and inspiration of learning from others is often a highlight of the experience.
In response to COVID-19 all of the CBT Skills Groups are offered virtually, with in-person group returning to certain areas.
Read the BCMJ article on Effectiveness and accessibility of virtual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Skills Group medical visits during COVID-19
Read the BCMJ article on the success of the CBT Skills Program and find out how it could benefit you and your patients.
CBT Skills Spread Initiative: Building a program to support doctor and patient mental health.
What is CBT?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) helps you become more aware of patterns of thinking (cognitions), feeling (emotions) and behaving. With awareness, you become aware of ways you can relate differently to your thoughts, or choose intentionally to create new thoughts and behaviours that will better support your mood. Focusing on your present-day life, you experiment with approaching challenges in ways that are more flexible and more likely to bring about positive change.
The CBT Skills groups draw from CBT and from other evidence-based therapies, including mindfulness and acceptance-based therapies, to teach you new ways of working in your life. You will learn about how the mind works, the nature of thoughts, the function of emotions, and the interconnection of thoughts, feelings and behaviours. You will practice various skills that help you remain in the present moment, where you can more often respond thoughtfully and in ways that will be supportive of your well-being. You will be introduced to practices that encourage self-compassion and self-acceptance.
CBT wins 2021 Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Care Award
The CFPC and CPA presents the CBT Skills Group Program the Collaborative Mental Health Care with the grassroots community program award.
Physicians, Support Patients Within Primary Care
The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Skills Group program is an eight-week group medical visit for adult patients (17.5-75 years old) who want to learn practical tools to improve their mental health. Trained physician facilitators deliver these 90-minute group medical visits, with up to 16 patients per group using zoom.