“I’m really anxious”
“I’m very stressed”
“I just can’t shake off my low mood”
“I can’t switch off and get to sleep”
“I’m nervous”
“I’m so unhappy”
There are times when everyone can feel like this. Generally, these feelings pass quickly but sometimes it gets harder to cope. In fact, one in every four people feels this way.
Many people experience problems with their wellbeing at some point in their lives. Things like losing a job, an accident, the loss of a loved one, a traumatic incident or even just moving house can lead to feelings that can be hard to cope with. Sometimes, there may be no event that has triggered how you are feeling – this is common too.
Problems like mild depression, worry, anxiety, stress, panic, isolation and loss of sleep make it difficult for us to cope with life’s daily demands. 1 in 4 of us will feel like this, but you do not need to try and cope on your own. If you live in Kirklees and are aged 17 or over, the Talking Therapies service can help.
What is Talking Therapies?
Talking Therapies helps people get quick and easy access to the best type of therapy for their individual needs. All the therapies we offer are evidence based and approved by the National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NIHCE).
How can Talking Therapies help?
We have a team of friendly, qualified, and experienced professionals and can help you:
- Address current problems
- Gain a new understanding of your difficulties and develop new ways of coping
- Make changes in your life
- Talk about your difficulties in a non-judgemental and supportive environment.
What can you expect?
You will be offered an assessment over the phone or in a GP surgery to determine whether the Talking Therapies service can help you and what that support might look like.
Short term help
If you feel you might benefit from a short period of help and support, you will work with one of our specially trained staff, known as a psychological wellbeing practitioner.
They are trained to help you manage your way to feeling better about your problems. You can work with them over the telephone and on occasions face to face. They will:
- Provide sessions of guided self-help to assist you in managing your symptoms
- Suggest other services which may help you
- Introduce self-help materials including written information and websites
- Support you with our computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programme (cCBT)
- Help you access a 6-week stress control course, teaching you how to better manage stress and anxiety
- Support you to engage in regular physical activity which is known to improve psychological wellbeing
- Sometimes you may need more support and this would involve either being seen by a cognitive behavioural therapist (CBT) or a counsellor for depression (CfD). Sessions would be longer and you would be offered more of them
The quotes below are comments from local people who have been helped by the service.
“I cannot praise the service enough for their patience and understanding. They have not only taught valuable lessons but have listened intently.”
“Now I look forward to many things that before I just dreaded.”
“You have changed my life.”
“I have benefited a great deal from the sessions and feel that it has resolved some fundamental issues that had dominated a large proportion of my life.”
“Valuable life skills have been learned. Each week that passed I got stronger and stronger.”
“They cared and supported in a remarkably professional and compassionate manner throughout.”
Here’s a typical story of how we have helped
“I’m married with two children and I’m a school secretary. I’ve always been a healthy person, but a while back I started to feel really stressed, particularly as I might be made redundant.
I was feeling really low when I woke up, and it was a struggle to get out of bed. Some days I felt fine but the bad days became more frequent and impacted on my work and my family. It came to a head when I burst into tears at work; but my boss was lovely and advised that I see my GP.
My GP explained how anxiety could make me feel so low and referred me to the Talking Therapies service. They helped me access a self-help programme and stayed in touch with me once a week. By the end of the programme, I understood why I had been feeling the way I did. I had learnt some really useful ways of coping for the future and felt more in control of my life.”
How to access the Talking Therapies service
Your GP can refer you or you can self refer by ringing the Talking Therapies number 01484 343700.
We will then work with you to explore the problems you are facing and identify how best to deal with them. You can submit a referral form online at: Make a referral | Kirklees Talking Therapies
