Telephone guided self-help

Telephone guided self-help is an easy way to access one to one support. Your dedicated Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP) will work with you through self-help materials that are specific to your difficulties.

You will receive up to six 30-minute sessions of guided help. The sessions are normally held weekly where we will:

  • Introduce you to the material and help you to get the most from it
  • Help you tackle unhelpful thoughts and beliefs about yourself, the world and others
  • Encourage activity and regular physical activity which can help you feel better

If you have any difficulty to access telephone guided self-help we can discuss other ways to help you.

Benefits

Treatment options

Most people will benefit first from our digital treatments, attending a course or Telephone Guided Self-help. Some people will need additional higher intensity help. Your clinician will discuss the following treatment options with you if it is needed:

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

CBT has been proven to help treat a wide range of emotional and physical health conditions and is recommended for the treatment of depression and all anxiety disorders, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. CBT looks at how we think about a situation and how this affects the way we act. In turn our actions can affect how we think and feel.

CBT Therapists help you to understand and make changes to unhelpful thoughts and behaviours which negatively impact on your mood. These unhelpful thoughts and behaviours are often responsible for helping to maintain Depression or Anxiety.

Couples therapy for depression

Couples Therapy for Depression is recommended as one of the treatments for depression. This is provided on behalf of NHS Buckinghamshire Talking Therapies by Relate. This brief therapy is for people in committed relationships where there is both relationship distress, and depression in one or both partners.

Couples therapy for depression focuses on the aspects of depression that concern others around you and on factors that reduce stress and increase support within the couple. It usually works best when both partners are interested and willing to work on improving their relationship and supporting one another.

This could include goals such as improving communication, managing feelings, changing behaviour, enhancing problem-solving skills and promoting acceptance within the couple. It is quite an ‘active’ form of therapy and couples are often asked to do ‘homework’ between sessions.

Please click here to access a further information document.

Counselling for depression (CfD)

CfD is one of the evidence based treatments for depression. It involves an exploration of a client’s feelings and whether or not these match up to what is really going on.

In doing so, new ways of understanding difficulties may develop which might offer more self-acceptance and provide opportunities to make positive changes.

Rather than focusing on symptoms or problems, CfD focuses on the client themselves and is less structured than CBT or IPT

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is one of the treatments that is recommended for the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Psychological distress is often overwhelming and, in some cases, the brain is unable to process information normally. EMDR relies on alternating left-right stimulation of the brain, for example through side to side eye movement, to help the brain process frozen or blocked information. As a result of this traumatic memories lose their intensity and become less distressing.

Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)

Interpersonal therapy (IPT) is one of the recommended treatments for depression. It focuses on your relationships with others and problems you may be having in your relationships, such as difficulties with communication or coping with loss.

IPT typically focuses on the following relationship difficulties:

  • conflict with another person
  • life changes that affect how you feel about yourself or others
  • grief and loss
  • difficulty in starting or keeping relationships going

Expectations

What to expect from us:

  • Our team are supervised and trained in the therapies offered to ensure you receive the highest quality of care
  • We work alongside you and are committed to keeping you and others safe. There may be occasions when we need to share some information with other services to do this
  • To help you in the best way we can, we keep information about your care on a secure and confidential computer system

What we expect from you:

  • To commit to time limited appointments and be willing to consider the idea of making changes to get the most from therapy
  • Tell us as soon as possible if you are unable to attend your appointment. If we don’t hear from you, and you don’t attend an appointment, we will assume that you no longer want therapy and we will refer you back to the care of your GP

Page last reviewed: 8 June, 2023

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