CBT for Dating and Relationships

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dating & Relationships

You might find yourself caught between wanting a relationship and fearing it. You date with some openness and hope, but once things become real, doubts creep in — wondering if you’ve chosen the right person, or if you’d feel freer alone. What begins as excitement can turn into restlessness, anxiety, or self-doubt.

In therapy, we explore the fears and beliefs beneath these patterns — often tied to vulnerability, rejection, control, or commitment — and help you build relationships (to yourself and others) that feel secure, fulfilling, and genuinely mutual.

Dating

It’s easy to feel that happiness depends on finding the “right” person. But part of this work involves learning to value yourself as a whole person — cultivating meaning through friendships, work, and interests — so that connection becomes an addition to, not the source of, fulfilment.

From this more grounded place, dating can shift from anxious striving to genuine curiosity. It becomes less about managing impressions and more about showing up as best you can — open to both possibility and disappointment, without either defining your worth.

Modern dating can also be uniquely draining: endless admin, emotional investment, and uncertainty. In therapy, we explore how to stay compassionate, realistic, and wise within that process — maintaining openness without losing self-respect, and accepting what you can’t control while focusing on how you show up.

Relationships

Even in committed relationships, doubt, resentment, or distance can emerge. You may find yourself swinging between closeness and withdrawal, people-pleasing and frustration — craving connection but fearing dependency or disappointment.

CBT helps you identify the thoughts, assumptions, and coping patterns that shape these dynamics, and to respond with awareness rather than automatic defences. Together, we work on communicating needs clearly, managing conflict constructively, and creating emotional safety that doesn’t compromise individuality.

Towards Secure Connection

Therapy won’t make relationships effortless — they’ll always involve uncertainty and difference. But it can help you approach them with acceptance of imperfection, courage to be authentic, and wisdom to navigate what’s within your control.

The goal isn’t perfect harmony, but honest, mutual connection.