CBT explores how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours influence one another. It helps identify unhelpful patterns and develop more supportive ways of responding. While often seen as structured or surface-level, CBT is actually a flexible, relational approach grounded in curiosity and collaboration. It invites us to understand where our beliefs come from and how they may have once helped us cope.

CBT also forms the foundation for many modern therapies, including ACT, DBT, ERP and Schema Therapy, all of which build on its core principles in different ways. It even integrates well with creative approaches, which can surprise people who assume it’s all worksheets and logic.

At its heart, CBT is about making sense of experience and there are many ways to do that.

DBT combines cognitive strategies with mindfulness and acceptance techniques. It’s especially helpful for people who experience intense emotions or relationship difficulties. It focuses on building skills in emotional regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness.

ACT supports you in noticing and accepting difficult thoughts and feelings, rather than trying to eliminate them. It helps you reconnect with your personal values and take action in line with what really matters to you, even when things are uncomfortable.

ERP is a type of therapy that helps people gradually face the thoughts, images, or situations that trigger distress, without doing the usual behaviours (like checking, avoiding, or seeking reassurance) that are meant to make the distress go away.

It’s a frontline treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), where distressing thoughts (obsessions) often lead to repetitive behaviours or mental acts (compulsions). These compulsions might feel like the only way to prevent something bad from happening or to reduce intense feelings of discomfort.

In ERP, the exposure part means slowly and safely approaching the situations or thoughts that usually trigger obsessions. The response prevention part means choosing not to do the compulsion even though it feels uncomfortable.

The goal isn't to get rid of thoughts or feelings, but to manage the response to them differently. Over time, your system learns:

• that you can tolerate uncertainty and discomfort,

• that the feared outcome doesn’t happen (or isn't as bad as it seems),

• and that you don’t need rituals to feel safe or in control.

ERP is challenging work, but it’s supported by decades of research and can be life-changing for people living with OCD.

For more information about OCD and evidence-based support, visit:
OCDWA or IOCDF

Schema Therapy explores deep emotional patterns (or “schemas”) often formed in childhood. These patterns can affect how we see ourselves, others, and the world. This approach helps build insight, self-compassion, and new ways of relating especially when long-standing beliefs feel stuck.

Sometimes words aren’t enough. Art-based approaches can help express feelings and insights that are hard to articulate. You don’t need to be “artistic” these tools are gentle, non-judgemental ways to support reflection, emotion processing, and personal meaning-making.

I also maintain a separate art practice, focused on place, memory, and reflective creative processes.
If you’re curious, you can view that work at michellesaleeba.art

Though it’s distinct from my psychology services, there are shared themes around reflection, expression, and connection.

For some people, walking side-by-side outdoors helps therapy feel more natural and less intense. It can also support nervous system regulation, creativity, and a sense of flow. Walk & Talk sessions are available in safe, accessible nature locations around Subiaco.

Read more here

And you might like to check out my free Walk & Reflect guide

A trauma-informed approach means working in a way that recognises how past experiences, even those you might not think of as “trauma”, can shape how we respond to stress, relationships, or change.

It doesn’t mean therapy is focused on the past.