We offer courses, groups and workshops to help you understand your problems and learn practical skills to cope with them.
For some people, working through problems with other people who understand what they’re going through can really help.
Group therapy gives you the opportunity to hear from others who are struggling with similar issues to you. You get to see that other people are having similar experiences to you. This can help you gain an understanding of your own problems.
No pressure
Therapists will spend time talking to you about planned topics each week. Group members are encouraged to talk about how they feel too. But you won’t be put on the spot or made to share your thoughts and experiences.
The therapists are there to make sure everyone gets the best out of the experience.
About sessions
We normally have 2 people running each group and between 8 to 12 participants
Sessions can last between 1 to 2 hours, depending on the workshop or work.
They're held weekly and online, using Microsoft Teams.
These workshops are delivered as live webinars. They take place using video conferencing (supported by Microsoft Teams) and a therapist will present the topic live.
There’s no pressure or expectation for you to speak, but there’s an opportunity to interact and ask questions if you choose to.
To attend, please refer yourself.
Managing uncertainty and anxiety during Covid-19
This workshop looks at the role of uncertainty and the impact it has on our anxiety levels. It helps to look at our own beliefs about uncertainty and strategies to help cope during uncertain times. It draws on the principles of compassion focused therapy.
Managing mood during Covid-19
Looking at low mood and how it can become a vicious cycle that leaves us feeling stuck. It will include strategies to challenge unhelpful negative thoughts, manage worry or over-thinking. It draws on the principles of compassion focused therapy.
Staying resilient during Covid-19
Looking at what resilience is, the factors that influence it, and ways to improve emotional resilience.
An introduction to mindfulness
If you have an interest in mindfulness, this workshop is for you.
The practice of mindfulness encourages us to:
- Become more aware of the present moment
- Pay attention - with acceptance and without judgement –- to the thoughts, feelings and sensations we experience.
In this way, mindfulness allows us to develop a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
This workshop will guide you through a number of mindfulness meditations. After each practice, there'll be a space to reflect, and to consider how these practices can be applied in your day-to-day life to improve your emotional wellbeing.
We’ve made these workshop videos so you can watch them online at a time convenient to you.
Assertiveness
If you would like to develop an assertive style of communication, this workshop could be for you. To be assertive means to be neither passive nor aggressive. It's to communicate your needs clearly without invalidating the needs of others.
This workshop will:
- Give you an understanding of different styles of communication
- Allow you to consider how your communication style can have an impact on yourself and others.
You'll be introduced to different techniques and strategies so that you can practise your own assertive style of communication.
Take the assertive workshop online by watching this video.
Relaxation
If you feel stressed and want strategies to relax, this workshop video could be for you.
A build-up of stress can leave us feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope and have an impact on many areas of our daily life.
This workshop will:
- Allow you to develop an understanding of what causes stress
- Bring awareness to both helpful and unhelpful coping strategies.
Relaxation is an effective way to counteract stress, and in the workshop you'll be invited to practice a number of different relaxation exercises to calm both your body and mind.
Watch the relaxation workshop video online.
Sleep
If you're experiencing difficulties with sleep, this workshop could be for you.
Sleep problems are commonly associated with low mood, stress and anxiety, and can have an impact on both physical and emotional wellbeing.
Provide you with an understanding of what maintains sleep difficulties
- Help to bust some common sleep myths
- Provide an introduction to sleep hygiene, providing a variety of tips and techniques to help improve the quality and quantity of your sleep.
Watch the sleep workshop video.
Guided relaxation strategies
The above online workshops recommend some guided relaxation strategies, such as progressive muscle relaxation, breathing techniques, and visualisation exercises. The link below provides some online NHS approved versions that you can try.
They're helpfully available in male or female voices, so you can choose which you're most comfortable with.
Visit the NHS website for guided relaxation techniques.
Stress and wellbeing using compassion focused therapy
This workshop looks at how we experience stress, and discuss wellbeing strategies and management using the principles of compassion focused therapy.
Watch the stress and wellbeing workshop video.
Acknowledgments: Some of the content worksheets used in this video are from the following websites, which may be of interest to you:
In our overcoming social anxiety group, you'll learn about how social anxiety develops and what makes keeps the problem persist.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) gives us an opportunity to:
- Challenge our negative predictions about social situations
- Train our attention to notice things we're missing
- Change how we behave in situations to start to overcome our social anxiety.
Then, with your peers, you'll gradually start to address these anxieties together in a safe and non-judgmental environment.
It's good to tackle social anxiety with other people who struggle with the same difficulties as you. It helps you face your fears from the start and feel less isolated with your problems.
Where: Online
When: Mondays 6.15pm to 7.45pm
This group is for people who feel low in self-esteem and confidence and may experience low mood and anxiety as a result.
Self-esteem refers to how we view and think about ourselves and the value that we place on ourselves as a person. If we view ourselves in a negative or imbalanced way, self-esteem can become a problem in our day-to-day lives.
The group will use cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) approaches to:
- Help you identify unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaviour
- Teach you how to introduce more helpful alternatives of thinking and behaviour to improve your self-confidence and mood.
It's useful to tackle low self-esteem with other people who struggle with the same difficulties as you. It helps you face your fears from the start and feel less isolated with your problems.
Where: online
When: Wednesdays 6pm to 7.45pm
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an 8-week skills training course. You're encouraged to become more aware of your thoughts and feelings as they arise in your mind and gently change your relationship to these thoughts and feelings.
It can also build on previous therapy to prevent relapses and maintain wellness.
The group involves a combination of guided practices and cognitive therapy, which explores how the way you think influences the way you feel emotionally.
During each session we'll:
- Go through a mixture of guided meditation practices
- Feedback on your experiences
- Discuss as a group what you can do for yourself to keep anxiety and depression at bay.
You need to commit a significant commitment of time and effort to get the most out of this course. You'll need to spend 30 to 45 minutes every day between sessions doing mindfulness practices and other home practice.
Further details on these sessions will be available soon.
The improve your mood course runs over 9 weeks and focuses on using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to improve symptoms of low mood/depression. It offers an introduction to understanding depression, what can cause it and what keeps it going.
This involves looking at:
- The way that we think about ourselves
- The way we spend our time
- What impact these factors have on how we feel.
We then think about how to break free from the patterns that can keep us feeling stuck in our low mood. This involves:
- Changing our activity levels
- Challenging negative thoughts
- Improving self-compassion.
Where: Online
When: Wednesday evenings
Managing stress group is a 6-week course based on the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). You can learn some great ways to control common stress problems such as:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Panic
- Poor sleep
- Burnout
- Loss of confidence or low self-esteem.
Each week, you'll learn about ways to manage and control different aspects of stress. By the end of the course, you'll develop your stress toolkit by combining the skills and techniques from the previous sessions.
The session themes are:
- Understand your stress
- Learn to notice stress triggers and the impact on different areas of your life
- Learn about your body’s reaction to stress and how to control it
- Learn about your mind’s reaction to stress and how to control it
- Learn about the impact of stress on what we do and how to make changes
- Applying your techniques to understand panic attacks and panicky feelings
- Learn about sleep problems and solutions and start controlling your future.
Where: Online
When: Wednesday between 6pm to 7.30pm
Parent and baby postnatal group is a 5-week course aimed at supporting mums and/or dads on how to manage the adjustments of becoming a parent. It's based on the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
With the support of the facilitators, the group also helps you connect with other parents in your area.
Together, you can:
- Share experiences and how they affect you
- Think about how to apply techniques you’ve learnt.
Each week, you're able to think about different challenges and consider techniques to try and overcome them. Challenges include:
- Communication barriers
- Managing expectations
- Getting a balance back in your life with a new baby
- Dealing with uncertainty and worries
- Managing the change parenthood can have on relationships.
You'll be given a booklet to help you implement the new techniques.
Where: Online
When: Weekly afternoon sessions - currently Thursdays at 12.00pm