If you refer yourself to IAPT, we will call you at a time suitable to you to arrange an appointment for an initial telephone assessment (around 30 to 45 minutes).

During the assessment, we will ask you a number of questions to help us understand why you have contacted the service. We will then decide with you which part of our service would be most useful. We may also suggest other services that might be helpful.

Cognitive behavioural therapy helps you to think differently about situations to change negative behaviour patterns. It focuses on ‘here and now’ problems instead of the causes of your distress in the past. A therapist will work with you to help you change the unhelpful patterns of thoughts and behaviours that could be causing your current problems. CBT can be particularly helpful if you experience low mood, depression or anxiety.

Guided self-help is a way of focusing on your problems to change the way you think, feel and behave. This will usually involve telephone sessions, although sometimes we may see you face-to-face. A member of the team will support you to use self-help techniques based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help you make positive, practical changes.

Counselling involves talking to a trained counsellor about how you feel about yourself and your situation. Counsellors use a range of therapy techniques to help you overcome the problems you are experiencing.

We run a number of courses and groups:

• Stress cntrol group: Four sessions, you can join at any point.
• Overcoming low self esteem: An 8 session group.
• Anger management: An 8 session group.
• Long term conditions (LTC) group: 8 Sessions for people who have anxiety and depression and also suffer from a long-term health condition.

Coming soon: Stress control in Punjabi and Tamil.

An advocate is someone who can both listen to you and speak on your behalf when you need extra support. IAPT advocates can help you to make informed choices, support you to express your views and concerns, access information and services and gain a sense of empowerment over a particular issue.