What to expect

The first thing to consider, are you ready for therapy?

You know you are ready for therapy if you:

• feel prepared to work on your difficulties
• are optimistic that therapy can help
• can form stable relationships
• can recognise and talk about feelings and thoughts
• know you are responsible for change
• can focus on positive outcomes or goals
• can commit to the process even though you may be fearful or have reservations
• are not presenting as a risk to yourself or others

The easiest way to do this, and if you are ready, is to self-refer online.

Once we receive your referral, we can look to get you your first appointment booked.

Assessment

Once we receive your referral, we can book your assessment appointment. You will then receive questionnaires by email about your current wellbeing. Please ensure these are completed 24 hours in advance of your appointment.

During the appointment, which could take up to 1 hour, we will review your questionnaire and have an in-depth discussion to explore the problems and symptoms you are experiencing. This will be based around a list of questions designed to help us decide with you the most suitable talking therapy.

If this is within our service, we will place you on our waiting list for treatment. It may be that another service is more suitable for your current needs and we can help signpost you to these.

Treatment

One of our team will contact you to arrange your first treatment appointment.

We provide people with different treatments, depending on their needs. We usually start with the least intensive treatment first.

Treatment is provided by trained IAPT therapists, either one to one or in a group course, and can be:

• by online video call
• face to face at one of our locations across the county
• by telephone

Due to the nature of our focussed, short-term work with you, it is likely that your therapist will ask you to do some work in-between sessions. In our experience the patients who actively engage in these tasks, often see the best results.

To help get the most out of your sessions, we hope you can build a positive relationship with your therapist. To help make this happen, both sides have responsibilities as detailed in our Making Space for Therapy leaflet (PDF, 40 KB).

You will be asked to complete questionnaires in advance of each appointment, which measure low mood, anxiety and the impact of difficulties in your life. This helps both you and your therapist to monitor progress.

We provide talking therapies as part of an NHS programme called Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT).

We collect personal and confidential information about you to help us deliver appropriate healthcare and treatment. In order to provide you with high quality care, we must keep records about you, your health and the care that we provide, or plan to provide to you. It is important for us to have a complete picture as this information enables us to provide the right care to meet your individual needs.

Your feedback helps us to understand what we are doing well and how to improve the service for others.

After assessment and upon completion of treatment, we will ask you to complete a patient experience questionnaire (PEQ). This provides us with valuable information about your experience of the service.

There may be times when the service does not meet your expectations. If this is the case, contact the Patient Advice Liaison service (PALS).

We may exceed your expectations and we’d love to hear about your positive experiences. You may like to recognise a member of our staff, who has delivered excellent service. So, if you've received a great experience, please take a moment to share it with us via WOW! awards