I provide Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in Yerevan for adults experiencing anxiety, persistent overthinking, emotional difficulties, behavioural problems and other psychological concerns.
CBT is the primary framework of my clinical work. It is a structured, collaborative and evidence-based approach that focuses on understanding the relationships between thinking, emotions, behaviour, bodily responses and the situations in which difficulties occur.
The aim of therapy is not simply to reduce unpleasant symptoms. It is to understand the mechanisms that maintain a problem and gradually develop more adaptive ways of thinking, responding and behaving.
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is based on the idea that our psychological reactions are influenced not only by what happens to us, but also by how we interpret events, what we predict will happen, how we respond emotionally and physiologically, and what we subsequently do.
These components continuously influence one another.
For example:
situation → interpretation → emotional and bodily response → behaviour → consequences → reinforcement of existing beliefs
Over time, certain patterns can become automatic.
A person may repeatedly interpret uncertainty as danger, criticism as rejection, bodily sensations as signs of catastrophe, mistakes as evidence of personal failure, or temporary emotional discomfort as something that must immediately be eliminated.
Behaviour can then reinforce these interpretations through avoidance, excessive checking, reassurance seeking, withdrawal, procrastination, compulsive actions or other coping strategies.
CBT helps identify these patterns and test alternative ways of responding.
CBT is not simply “positive thinking”
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is sometimes misunderstood as an attempt to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
That is not the purpose of CBT.
The goal is to develop more accurate, flexible and functional thinking.
Sometimes a concern is unrealistic and requires cognitive re-evaluation. Sometimes the danger or difficulty is real, and therapy focuses instead on coping, problem solving, decision-making or accepting what cannot be controlled.
CBT therefore involves examining evidence, testing assumptions, understanding biases in information processing and learning through direct experience.
What problems can CBT help with?
Depending on the individual case, I use CBT-based interventions in work involving:
- anxiety and excessive worrying;
- panic attacks and panic disorder;
- social anxiety;
- fears, phobias and agoraphobia;
- obsessive-compulsive symptoms;
- persistent overthinking and rumination;
- health-related anxiety;
- depressive thinking and behavioural withdrawal;
- anger and difficulties with emotional regulation;
- gambling disorder and problematic gambling;
- avoidance and procrastination;
- perfectionistic patterns;
- relationship-related beliefs and recurring interpersonal patterns;
- difficulties tolerating uncertainty;
- decision-making under psychological pressure.
The presence of similar symptoms does not necessarily mean that two people have the same psychological problem. For this reason, treatment should be based on an individual formulation, rather than simply applying techniques according to a diagnostic label.
How I work in CBT
Assessment and case formulation
Therapy begins with understanding the problem.
Together, we examine:
- when the difficulties began;
- what situations activate them;
- recurring thoughts and interpretations;
- emotional and physiological reactions;
- patterns of behaviour;
- avoidance and safety behaviours;
- underlying assumptions and beliefs;
- factors that reinforce or maintain the problem.
This information allows us to develop a working psychological model – or case formulation – that explains why the problem continues.
The formulation then guides treatment.
Cognitive work
Cognitive interventions help identify habitual interpretations, predictions and assumptions that may be inaccurate, excessively rigid or unhelpful.
We may examine questions such as:
- What am I predicting?
- What evidence supports this interpretation?
- What information am I overlooking?
- Am I treating a possibility as a probability?
- Am I demanding certainty where certainty is impossible?
- What would be a more accurate interpretation?
- How could I test this assumption in reality?
The objective is not to tell a person what to think, but to develop the ability to examine one’s own thinking more critically and independently.
Behavioural work
Behaviour is equally important.
People naturally try to reduce psychological discomfort. However, some strategies that provide immediate relief can maintain problems over time.
Examples include avoidance, repeated checking, seeking reassurance, postponing difficult actions, compulsive behaviours, social withdrawal or attempts to control every possible source of uncertainty.
CBT therefore often involves behavioural experiments, exposure, activity planning, skills practice and changes in habitual responses.
New learning occurs not only through discussion, but through experience.
CBT, learning and the brain
One of my particular professional and research interests is the relationship between cognition, behaviour, psychotherapy and neurobiology.
From this perspective, psychotherapy can also be understood as a process of learning.
Repeated patterns of attention, interpretation and behaviour become increasingly automatic. Conversely, new cognitive and behavioural experiences can gradually modify how a person predicts danger, responds to uncertainty and regulates emotional reactions.
When useful, I therefore integrate CBT work with understandable explanations of relevant mechanisms from cognitive science and neuroscience.
The aim is not to reduce psychological problems to brain processes, but to understand psychological and biological levels as interconnected parts of the same system.
A collaborative and structured approach
CBT is generally an active form of psychotherapy.
Therapist and client jointly establish goals, examine the mechanisms maintaining difficulties and evaluate whether therapeutic strategies are producing meaningful change.
Depending on the problem, work between sessions may also include observations, behavioural experiments, exposure exercises, structured records or other practical tasks.
These are not “homework” in the school sense. Their purpose is to transfer therapeutic learning from the consultation room into everyday life.
Is CBT always the appropriate approach?
Not necessarily.
No single psychotherapeutic approach is optimal for every person or every psychological problem.
My clinical work is grounded primarily in CBT while also being informed by evidence-based and integrative approaches. Where clinically appropriate, other therapeutic methods, including EMDR, may also be incorporated.
An important purpose of the initial assessment is therefore to determine what kind of psychological work is most appropriate for the particular problem.
What happens during the first consultation?
The first consultation is primarily devoted to assessment and initial case formulation.
We discuss the current problem, its history, triggering situations, thoughts, emotions, behaviour, previous attempts to cope and the changes you would like to achieve.
By the end of the assessment process, we aim to have a clearer answer to three questions:
What is happening?
What is maintaining it?
What can we work on to change it?
From there, we can establish therapeutic goals and an appropriate treatment strategy.
About my CBT background
I am a psychologist (PsySD) and psychotherapist holding the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP).
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the principal framework of my clinical practice and one of my main professional, research and teaching interests.
I am also Vice-President and Co-Founder of the Armenian Scientific-Educational Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ArSEA CBT).
My broader academic interests include the neurobiology of anxiety disorders, cognitive science and the integration of CBT, neuroscience and artificial intelligence. I am the author and co-author of more than 50 scientific papers and eleven books in psychology and psychotherapy.
CBT sessions in Yerevan and online
Consultations are available: In person in Yerevan and Online
Working languages: Armenian · English · Russian · Polish
Schedule a session
If you are considering Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, you can contact me to discuss your concerns and determine whether CBT may be an appropriate approach for your situation.