Your group treatment

‘Bump2Baby' A 6-week group for mums experiencing anxiety and/or depression related symptoms during their pregnancy. We teach and encourage self-management of low mood and anxiety symptoms that can develop during pregnancy, using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) tools and techniques. Topics covered include breaking cycles of reduced activity and avoiding ‘boom & busts’, building a scaffold, perfectionism, managing worries and tolerating uncertainty, mindfulness and relaxation tools.

By the end of the course, we hope for you to leave with: 

·       A good understanding of depression and anxiety and how pregnancy can impact our mood

·       An understanding of how periods of low mood and anxiety can be maintained and the links between our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours.

·       Several CBT techniques which can be used to manage periods of low mood and anxiety

·       An awareness of your early warning signs for depression and anxiety and have a plan in place of how these skills and strategies can be used to maintain progress.

This 6-week psychoeducational course uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based techniques to teach skills and strategies to help manage periods of low mood and depression. We focus on setting goals, identifying unhelpful patterns of behaving and thinking, and aim to make changes to our routines and thinking patterns which can positively impact our mood.

By the end of the course, we hope for you to leave with:

·       A good understanding of depression

·       An understanding of how periods of low mood can be maintained and the links between our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours

·       Several cognitive behavioural techniques which can be used to help overcome depression and manage periods of low mood

·       An awareness of your early warning signs and have a plan in place to use these skills and strategies to maintain progress

This 7-week psychoeducational course uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based techniques to teach skills and strategies to help participants overcome symptoms of panic. We focus on understanding anxiety and panic attacks, setting goals, the role of behaviours, examining fears and how to face them, and understanding how worry can affect panic attacks and how to manage them. 

By the end of the course participants should:

·       Have a good understanding of what we mean by panic attacks and anxiety, and when they can become a problem.

·       Understand how anxiety and panic attacks are maintained, through the links between our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours.

·       Have learnt several useful cognitive behavioural techniques which can be used to help overcome panic attacks and bring high levels of anxiety down to a manageable level.

·       Be aware of their early warning signs for if anxiety/panic attacks are again becoming problematic, and have a plan in place of how these skills and strategies can be used to maintain progress and manage setbacks.

This 6-week psychoeducational course uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based techniques to teach skills and strategies to help participants overcome problematic anxiety and worrying. We focus on setting goals, gaining control over our worry and anxious thoughts, managing the unpleasant physical symptoms that can come with anxiety and recognising and reducing unhelpful things we do when we’re anxious.

By the end of the course, we aim for you to leave with:

·       A good understanding of excessive worry (also known as Generalised Anxiety Disorder)

·       An understanding of how worry can be maintained and the links between our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours

·       Knowledge of several techniques which can be used to help reduce your anxiety and worry

·       An awareness of your early warning signs for anxiety and have a plan in place to maintain progress and manage setbacks

This 11 session group helps to understand what self esteem is, how low self esteem can be maintained and the links between our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours. The course also includes several cognitive behavioural techniques which can be used to break the vicious cycle of low self-esteem and how to continue this after the group comes to an end.

This group is for people who struggle with excessive worrying and anxiety. A degree of worrying is normal, but for some people it can become too much and begin to have a negative impact on their quality of life. When we experience anxiety and worry, we might find ourselves getting caught up worrying more often and for longer, with the same worries going round and round in our head. We feel tense and on edge, making it difficult for us to stay present or enjoy life. We might find ourselves constantly seeking reassurance from family and friends or putting things off. People who experience Generalised Anxiety disorder (GAD) can find it difficult to concentrate on things and can experience physical symptoms of anxiety such as muscle tension, headaches and nausea.

This 11 session group will firstly help you to understand your worry and anxiety better. You will then be taught skills and techniques to help reduce worry and anxiety. Finally, you will put in place a plan to help maintain progress and manage any setbacks which may occur.  

This 9-session group is for people who have had recurrent depression (3 or more previous periods of depression) and are currently feeling mostly better. The MBCT approach is based on research and aims to prevent future relapses of depression.

This 9-session group is an alternative approach to CBT for people with distress associated with long-term physical health conditions, for example chronic pain, fatigue, gastrointestinal disorders and migraines. We focus on mindfulness exercises during the weekly sessions to help how you are feeling both emotionally and physically. There is an expectation that people would take forward these mindfulness practices in between sessions to gain the best effect.

The Long-Term Conditions Programme is aimed at individuals who may be struggling with mood or worry symptoms linked to the difficulties of Living with a Long-Term Health problem.

We currently offer 3 session online programmes designed for those living with the following problems:

• Diabetes
• Heart conditions (including Heart attacks/angina/heart failure)
• Respiratory conditions (such as COPD, bronchitis, emphysema, chronic asthma)

We also run an 8-week group for anyone struggling with stress, low mood and/or anxiety as a result of a long-term physical health condition. This group focuses on coping with change, loss and uncertainty, learning to live with and manage your condition, support and techniques to help you make the lifestyle changes that you want to, managing stress, worries, depression and feeling overwhelmed.

Depression is often characterised by feeling sad and hopeless and losing interest in things you used to enjoy. change in our daily routines and negative thinking. In particular, a pessimistic view of self, the world and the future makes it hard for someone who is depressed to come to terms with or act upon their situation, which in turn heightens the sense of loss, hopelessness and frustration experienced. The lower we feel the harder it can be to problem solve or work towards a rewarding life which in turn can leave us feeling worse. 

This 12 session group seminar specifically focuses on these thinking patterns, and then teaches participants four steps to change: becoming aware, stepping back, finding more helpful perspectives and taking action. The group runs for 10 weeks with each session lasting 1.5 – 2 hours and works sequentially through these steps. In order to gain the most from the seminar there is an expectation for participants to attend sessions and complete 30 minutes of homework per week.

This is a high intensity seminar that addresses Health Anxiety. It is a 12 week programme based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy techniques which aims to help you understand what causes anxiety about health issues and those factors that keep the problem going.

The seminars are usually run by one therapist with up to 8-10 participants. The programme provides the opportunity to share your experience with others who have similar difficulties in a friendly, informal atmosphere.

Each session is structured so that you build up a skills base to help change unhelpful behaviours and challenge thinking patterns. Over the course of 12 weeks participants usually see significant changes in their ability to manage anxiety about health issues as well as developing an action plan to manage any future setbacks.

This 12 session group focuses on helping people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to develop a new relationship with, and a more effective way of responding to, their distressing intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. This allows anxiety to reduce over time and for your life to be less affected by the problem. This is a very active group, which emphasises the importance of changing behaviour, rather than just ‘thinking’ your way out of OCD. It will support you to break the cycles that are maintaining OCD and to engage more fully with your life again. In the final sessions you will put in place a plan to help maintain progress and manage any setbacks which may occur. 

This 12 session group is for people who find social situations and being around people very anxiety provoking, to the degree that it gets in the way of enjoying life or achieving their goals. People with social anxiety often fear they will do or say something they think will be humiliating or embarrassing. It is more than just being shy and can make it very difficult to carry out everyday tasks such as speaking on the phone, going to the shops, or speaking up at work or when with friends.

In the group, you will first learn about the factors that keep social anxiety going. You will learn techniques and tools that work on the factors maintaining the social anxiety which will help to break the cycles. In the final sessions you will put in place a plan to help maintain progress and manage any setbacks which may occur. Although people with social anxiety can feel particularly worried about coming to a group, the group setting also provides an opportunity to practice social skills in the moment and when you see others working through their fears this can encourage and motivate you too.

This is a one off workshop supporting partners of any gender both before baby is due and following the birth of your baby. We use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques to help provide psychoeducation on perinatal distress, tips on how you can support your partner during the perinatal period, tips on communication and self-care and survival tips for partners. 

This 10 session course aims to support new mums during a time in their life when they are experiencing significant change. Whilst being a new parent can be joyful and rewarding, it can also be a challenging time and we know that many mothers experience difficulties with low mood, anxiety and adjusting to the new role. In this course, you will initially focus on developing an understanding of low mood and anxiety, and the links between our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours. You will be guided to build on activities week by week, gradually resuming activities you previously enjoyed. You will be supported to break tasks down into manageable chunks so that they do not feel as overwhelming. The focus of the course will then move to looking at how some patterns of thinking can be unhelpful. You will learn strategies to help you to disengage from and challenge these thoughts. You will also learn techniques to help you to reduce the amount of time spent worrying. The course concludes by setting new goals and putting a plan in place to maintain progress and manage setbacks. 

*We also offer a one off ‘Supporting Your Partner’ session for partners which covers information on perinatal distress, how to support your partner during the perinatal period, as well as tips for communication and self-care.