Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Trust
Help in crisis
Help in crisis

Services

Talking Therapies

We are a free service for people aged 18 and above.  We only offer talking therapies that have been shown by research to be effective.  Most of our therapies are based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
What Talking Therapies involves
How to refer yourself
What happens after you contact us
What help we provide
How we help
Useful resources
Health professionals
  • Not feeling yourself lately?
  • Struggling to cope with how you feel?
  • Are you noticing that your thoughts and feelings are getting in the way of how you live your life?
  • Are you living with a physical health condition that is affecting your emotional wellbeing?

If any of those situations sound like you, we might be the right people to help you feel more like yourself again.

Whether you’re dealing with an overwhelming life event, having sleepless nights or struggling with anxiety or low mood, we are here to help. You can refer yourself by filling out our self referral form or by calling us on 0800 073 2200. A member of our team will help you book an appointment for an initial assessment.

We offer a range of options and encourage you to get help early as we know that for many, this will help you get back on track more quickly.

What does NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression involve?

Talking therapies involve the patient and therapist, or practitioner, working as a team to understand problems, overcome current difficulties and help you to achieve your goals. Therapy involves talking, but usually also involves doing practical exercises and tasks, both in and outside of sessions. It is an active process, and the therapist or practitioner will regularly check in with you to find out how you are getting on.
Talking therapies are provided in different ways, including:

  • using a self-help workbook or website with the support of a therapist
  • one-to-one in person, over the phone, or through video consultation
  • in a group.

If your first language is not English, talking therapies can be delivered in your chosen language through multi-lingual therapists or confidential translators. NHS Talking Therapies, for anxiety and depression, are also available in British Sign Language (BSL) through SignHealth.

How to refer yourself

You can access the NHS Talking Therapies service in the following ways:

  • Phone the service direct and free of charge on 0800 073 2200
  • Ask your GP/health professional to make a referral to the team on your behalf
  • Click on the link to complete the secure and confidential online self-referral form.

Once your referral has been received, one of our friendly administrators will contact you shortly after to complete the registration process and book your assessment appointment. If you refer yourself online we are usually able to send you a link via a text message for you to be able to book your own initial appointment online.

Unfortunately we are not able to offer help in a crisis situation. If you have experienced worsening symptoms, or are struggling to cope, please make an appointment to see your GP or ring NHS111 (or visit 111 online) and select ‘option 2’ for mental health support.

What happens after you have contacted us?

Once you have contacted us we will book you in for an initial assessment appointment with one of our clinicians, usually over the telephone.

This appointment will take between 45 minutes and an hour. We will find out how you are feeling and what you need help with. We will talk through what we can offer, which is usually based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), or what is available outside of our service, if that better suits what you need or want. We will also recommend some information for you to read while you are waiting for help, and recommend that you look at the resources on our website.

What help we provide

Most of our treatments are based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – an evidence-based talking therapy.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at the way our thoughts, feelings and behaviours interact with each other, and how this can help to maintain some of the difficulties we have, such as experiencing anxiety, depression or stress.

By identifying these cycles, CBT works by breaking things down into smaller parts, which can help us feel less overwhelmed and identify small steps that can be taken to make positive changes.

CBT is a very practical approach, which means you will need to dedicate time outside of therapy sessions to practice new skills. For example, you may be asked to monitor how you are thinking and feeling in certain situations, so this can be reviewed with your therapist to identify areas that are helpful or less helpful. You will also be asked to ‘test out’ new ways of doing things, so you can try and break more unhelpful cycles

The length of your treatment will depend on your needs, and the type of difficulties you’re experiencing. We will discuss what we think will best suit you at an initial assessment. Find out more about CBT on the NHS website. 

Conditions we can help with:

  • agoraphobia
  • body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)
  • depression
  • generalised anxiety disorder
  • health anxiety (hypochondriasis)
  • mixed depression and anxiety
  • obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • panic disorder
  • post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • social anxiety disorder
  • specific phobias (such as heights, flying, spiders etc.).

Please don’t delay getting in touch, we are here to help.

Educational courses
We regularly run a ‘Low Mood’ or ‘Managing your Worries’ course. These are run during the daytime and evenings to make them as accessible as possible. They consist of six sessions that are one hour each week. The courses are educational and will help you understand more about what anxiety or depression is, how it could be affecting you and identify vicious cycles that keep it going. We will teach you skills and practical techniques to help you learn to manage your mood in a supportive and friendly environment. You will not be asked to talk about your own problems or share any information about yourself to others on the course. Our courses are currently offered via video conferencing and face-to-face groups.

Low Mood course

This course runs for an hour a week over six weeks. By being aware of what you do and how you think, this course will provide you with skills and strategies to help you manage symptoms of low mood and depression. Using CBT, we can help you change your behaviours, which may be maintaining your low mood, and also challenge your negative thinking, which keeps you stuck in the vicious cycle of depression.

Managing your Worries course

This course will help you to understand what worry and anxiety is and how your thinking and behaviours maintain it. Using CBT, we will help you learn skills and strategies to help you manage your stress and anxiety and break the negative vicious cycles. With support from the facilitators and others on the course, we gently encourage you to face what you have been avoiding by using the techniques you have learnt on the course.

Guided self-help
This approach involves talking to one of our Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners, usually on the telephone, for up to six weeks. The practitioner will help you identify what you want to work on, and how CBT approaches can help with this. They use a variety of resources that describe in more detail how to improve your mood by using CBT, as well as focusing on skills and techniques that you can practice with our support.
Individual therapy
Most people start off trying one of our guided self-help options (psychoeducational courses / Ccbt). For many, this is all you need to better understand what is happening and learn new skills and techniques to get back on track. However, following this first step, we may suggest that you would benefit from talking to one of our therapists in more depth about your individual circumstances, where you will jointly develop a treatment plan to meet your needs. Most of the individual therapy that we offer is CBT, and these appointments will typically last for 50 – 60 minutes per week over a number of weeks, agreed between you and your therapist. We can offer this via video calls or in person at one of our bases around the county.

As with all our care, face-to-face therapy follows NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, www.nice.org.uk) guidance to provide the most appropriate intervention for your particular problems.

Translation and interpretation support
If English is not your first language, translation and interpretation support is available. Please mention this when you contact us.
Computerised CBT
Computerised CBT or cCBT is the name for delivering CBT approaches via an online platform. You will be allocated one of our Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners who will support and guide you through the SilverCloud programme that fits your needs. You will be supported to learn new skills and test out new techniques to manage how you feel. When the course ends, your practitioner can even unlock additional information for you to carry on working through after you have been discharged from the service. The programme is designed so that you can work through the content at your own pace and at a time that suits you.

How we help

Depending on what is happening for you, following an individual assessment we will recommend one of our treatment options that clinical evidence would recommend as the best first step. This could include individual work, face to face (in-person or via a video meeting) or on the telephone, or our online CBT programme, Silvercloud – a flexible self-help and learning programme, as well as a range of courses to look at sleep and managing anxiety and low mood. We also run courses that focus on low mood and depression or anxiety and worry.

The ways we support you can include:

  • working with you to identify the difficulties you are experiencing
  • helping you decide what to focus on
  • suggesting resources that would be helpful for you to read
  • providing information about local places for help and support
  • identifying thoughts and behaviours that may be keeping some of the problems going
  • helping to identify your own strengths and resources that you can use to support you
  • helping to set realistic goals to work towards
  • identifying and teaching skills and techniques for you to practice and report back on, to manage your mood.

Self-help guides

We have a range of self-help guides and other resources to provide you with information on the condition you are experiencing and helpful ways to manage it. Reading resources like this can help you understand more about the experiences you are having that will support any treatment we offer.

Whatever your journey with us, a member of our team will stay in touch with you and guide you through what can be a very difficult time in your life. There is sometimes a wait for some weeks before starting treatment. While you wait, if your situation changes, get back in touch with us or your GP.

What’s the problem?

Complete these short questionnaires to help identify whether or not our help would be useful to you. They ask you about common symptoms of depression and anxiety that you might have experienced over the last 2 weeks. We recommend getting help early, so please don’t delay in contacting us.

Useful resources

Online Guidance

The guides here are reproduced with permission of the University of Exeter: 

General mental health advice

The Samaritans are available 24 hours a day to provide confidential emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress, despair or suicidal thoughts.
Telephone 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org or email jo@samaritans.org.

Other sources of support: 

Information for health professionals

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust’s NHS Talking Therapies  service offers a stepped care approach for people with common mental health problems in Gloucestershire. Our aim is to offer assessment and NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) evidence-based psychological treatment to residents over 18 years of age, who have mild to moderate anxiety and depression. Patients must be registered with a Gloucestershire GP.

For people whose presentations are more complex or severe, or where there is significant risk, please refer to your primary mental health nurse or, for secondary care referrals, to the Contact Centre.

For people with a registered GP outside of Gloucestershire, you can find their nearest Talking Therapies service here.

Referrals

Many of our patients self-refer; however, Health Care Professionals can refer patients to our service on their behalf. You can refer to the team by completing the online secure and confidential Health Professionals’ referral form, or by sending a written referral form to us by email or in the post.

Once your referral has been received, we will contact your patient as soon as possible to arrange a telephone assessment and offer treatment if appropriate.

If you have any queries about a specific referral or the service we offer, please contact us on 0800 073 2200.

Service Model

We offer a stepped care service based on NICE guidance and use the NICE diagnostic criteria and PHQ9 and GAD7 as a guide to measure the severity of anxiety and depression (see the quick self-assessment tool).

Contact us

Telephone: 0800 073 2200
Email: letstalk@ghc.nhs.uk
Write to us: NHS Talking Therapies, Eastgate House, 121- 131 Eastgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 1PX

If you have a comment, complaint, concern or compliment about our services, please click here to find out how to share your views.

Working for Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Are you interested in working for us? Visit our main website to learn more and view our latest vacancies.

Need help in a crisis?

If there is an immediate danger to life, please dial 999 or go to your nearest Accident and Emergency Department.
Details of our crisis teams and other organisations who may be able to help can be found here.
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