Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) at Rahama Wellness Center is a structured, time-limited talking therapy delivered by licensed therapists at our centre in Sabon Lugbe, Abuja. It works on the link between what a person thinks, how they feel and what they do, and it has the strongest published trial evidence of any talking therapy for anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, phobias and post-traumatic stress.

What makes CBT different from ordinary therapy

CBT is shorter, more structured and more practical than open-ended therapy. You and your therapist agree specific goals at the start, work through them week by week, and use tasks between sessions to practise what the sessions cover. Progress is checked against the goals you set rather than against a general sense of how things are going, which is what makes a course of CBT something you finish rather than something you stop.

What the evidence says

CBT is among the psychological treatments the World Health Organization recommends for depression, anxiety and substance use disorders in its mhGAP Intervention Guide, the guidance written for settings like Nigeria rather than adapted to them. That is the reason it is a mainstay here and not a fashion.

CBT in the Nigerian context

CBT at Rahama Wellness Center is delivered by licensed therapists who respect the culture, faith and background a client brings with them. Nobody will be asked to give up their faith, their family obligations or their community in order to get better, and the examples worked through in sessions are the ones from your own life. Where a person needs longer or less structured work, individual therapy may suit better, and where the difficulty is shared by a household, family and couples therapy is often the right room. We say which at assessment.