Virtual CBT | Northpoint Counseling
Challenge unhelpful thoughts & replace unwanted behaviors
What Is CBT?
As the name suggests, cognitive behavioral therapy (also known as “CBT”) is a blend of the behavioral therapies originating in the early 20th century with the cognitive therapies of the mid-20th century. It gained popularity through the work of Aaron T. Beck and is now a widely used evidence-based treatment for a number of mental health concerns, including depression and anxiety.
The basic premise of CBT is that a person’s perception of events (rather than the event itself) ultimately determines how that person will feel and then act in response. Moreover, those actions or behavioral responses can then further influence a person’s mood and thought processes.
In other words, a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all interrelated and can work together to either drive up– or tamp down– psychological suffering.
How Does CBT Help?
I like to think of CBT as our “first line of defense” in treating symptoms of depression or anxiety. Using a CBT approach, we’ll identify and explore how the beliefs you hold about yourself, others, and the world (called “core beliefs”) influence your perception of events and contribute to unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors. You’ll also learn strategies for restructuring or replacing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, with the goal of helping you to manage psychological suffering more effectively.
While CBT is typically a highly-structured approach complete with agendas, worksheets, and homework, I tend to use it more flexibly– integrating CBT concepts and skills with other “third wave” cognitive behavioral therapies, including ACT and DBT, for example. That being said, if you’re looking for a more “traditional” CBT approach, just let me know, and I’ll be ready, worksheets in hand!
It’s possible to restructure old patterns of thinking and behaving and Northpoint counseling can help!
Together, we will explore how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors contribute to anxiety, and learn evidenced-based strategies for managing anxiety more effectively so that you can invest that time and energy instead into pursuing the things you value.
FAQ's
When you click Book a Free Consultation, you’ll be scheduled for a free 20-minute phone consultation. This will be an opportunity for us to begin getting to know one another and to decide whether working together might be a good fit. I’ll be interested to hear a little bit about what brings you to therapy and what you’re looking for. We’ll also address any additional questions you have about the process.
If you decide to move forward, the next step will be to schedule your 90-minute intake session. This session will primarily be spent completing an assessment that will help me to get to know you better, including what brings you to therapy, your history, and any other factors that might be contributing to the issue of concern. We’ll also discuss your goals for treatment and work together to create a “treatment plan” or outline for how we’ll work together to achieve those goals.
After the initial 90-minute session, we’ll decide together how often you’d like to meet and how long you’d like each session to last. Typically, we’ll meet weekly for up to 50-minutes as we’re getting to know one another, but that’s open to change as we build rapport and begin making progress towards your goals.
If, at any point in this process, we decide that working together will not be a good fit, I’ll help you to find another resource or provider that might be a better fit for your needs.
For rates and help with insurance eligibility visit:
Great question! I’d like to be able to give you a straightforward answer, but it’s difficult to say for sure. That’s because every person and situation is so unique- while some people might only need 8-12 sessions, others might spend a year or more in therapy. It also depends on the style of therapy you’re looking for, whether that’s highly structured and goal-oriented or more exploratory and insight based.
What I can tell you is that we’ll discuss this further within the first session or two after I’ve had a chance to get to know you better. Typically, we’ll start with 12 sessions and reassess together from there. That being said, therapy typically “ends” when you feel that you’ve met your goals or gotten to the place that you came here for.
A “typical” session will vary slightly from individual to individual and largely depends on your goals and expectations for treatment. We’ll most often begin by checking in on how you’ve been feeling and coping between sessions, as well as reviewing any “homework” that may have been assigned in the previous session.
Then we’ll set an “agenda” for our session that day. As much as possible, I prefer to let clients take the lead on what they want to talk about or work on in a given session. Generally speaking, you’ll be asked to reflect, express your feelings, consider alternatives, and get comfortable with the uncomfortable! While this might feel new and intimidating at first, I’ll be there to support you along the way.
Online therapy looks much the same as in-person therapy, aside from the fact that we won’t be sharing a physical space. You can think of it kind of like meeting with your therapist over Facetime or Zoom, except that I’ll be using a HIPAA-compliant software that is secure and abides by health information and patient privacy laws.
In fact, the most recent studies to date suggest that online therapy is just as effective as in-person therapy, with several added benefits. For those who live in remote locations or have transportation concerns, online therapy helps to remove those barriers and promote access to care (not to mention the time saved commuting to and from your session or the freedom to join the session from the comfort of your own home).
That being said, online therapy is not a fit for every person and situation. We’ll discuss this further during your initial phone consultation to ensure that online therapy will be the right fit for you. If for whatever reason, it’s not, I’ll provide you with alternative resources for in-person therapy to better suit your needs.
When you schedule an appointment with me, that time is set aside just for you. With this in mind, I request at least 24 hours notice in advance of a cancellation. You may call 320-200-4190 to cancel your appointment, or send an e-mail to britt@northpointmn.com.
Missed appointments (i.e. “no-shows”) or appointments canceled with less than 24 hours notice will be charged at 50% of the full session fee. I allow a 15-minute “grace period” for late arrivals, after which point the session will be counted as a “no-show” and will need to be rescheduled. Since every session is allotted a specific time, I am unable to extend that time for late arrivals. Please be advised that late arrivals will end at the scheduled time, and will be billed the full 50-minute session fee.
