Central Cheshire Talking Therapies (formerly IAPT) service provides a range of services for individuals aged 16 and over, who have common mental health problems, who are registered with GP surgeries within the Central Cheshire area.
What is a Talking Therapies service?
A Talking Therapies service is for adults aged 16 + with mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety or depression and provides brief psychological therapy.
Who are we?
In our team we have Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWP’s), Cognitive Behavioural Therapists (CBT Therapists), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapists (EMDR Therapists), Counsellors, Employment Support Advisors and Administrators.
We offer a self-referral option by telephone or online. Please click the button below to refer online or see the ‘Self-Referral and How to Get Help’ section below.
Using a stepped-care approach, the team provides screening assessments and psychological interventions to individuals suffering with common mental health problems.
We provide a range of evidence based psychological interventions, where all our therapies follow guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
There are a variety of ways in which we can offer you help depending on your needs, these include: computerised packages, group interventions, telephone contacts or individual sessions.
Initially you will be offered a telephone appointment to discuss the problem you are currently experiencing and want help with. As part of this you will be asked to complete some questionnaires about how you are currently feeling. These can also be completed online prior to the assessment. A decision will then be made about what help will be most beneficial for you at this time.
It is important to understand that psychological interventions can be hard work, both during and in between contacts. It is important to realise that it is not a quick fix; it could take time and commitment to benefit from therapy.
It is important that you are able to make a commitment to regular contacts; whether they are over the telephone, group or face to face sessions, to get the best from psychological help.
The service can provide psychological therapies (also known as talking therapies) for the following difficulties:
- Depression and low mood
- Panic Disorder
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder
- Health anxiety and medically unexplained symptoms
- Social phobia
- Specific phobia
- Trauma (including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Adjustment Disorder
- Bereavement and loss
- Insomnia
- Anxiety/ depression in people with long term conditions
- Post-natal anxiety/depression
We offer a range of online interactive therapy programmes, designed to provide a flexible way for you to access psychological support at a time that suits you best.
These therapy programmes are all evidence based guided self-help programmes. The programmes are made up of a variety of different modules, looking at how we think, feel and behave as these contribute to our mood, stress and anxiety levels.
Online therapy can be helpful for people who:
- Have access to a computer, smart phone or tablet.
- Feel confident in using the internet and apps in daily life.
- Feel motivated to change something in their life, and have clear goals to work towards.
- Have busy lives and may struggle to attend regular appointments.
If you feel online help would be for you, please see the 'self referral and how to get help' section.
You can access the service in more than one way:
- GP/Health Professional referral: The service will accept referrals from GPs or other healthcare professionals (e.g. health visitors or community nurses). If you ask your GP to refer you to the service, he or she will be able to complete our referral form and refer you to our service.
- Self-refer by phone on 0300 303 0639
- Self-refer online by clicking here.
Self-help is a broad term that refers to improving mental health or personal wellness without extensive professional help. It can be used for a variety of issues and you can do this work in your own time to help with problems such as stress, anxiety and depression.
They can also be convenient if:
- you are wanting information about the problems you are experience o help you understand what you are experiencing and suggestions of what you can do to manage these more effectively
- you are short of time, you have family or work commitments
- you can't get outside easily
For some, this is enough to help and they no longer need therapy as they can put into practice the information they have been looking in to. Whilst for others, educational reading and self-help techniques from a range of different resources can help individual prepare for therapy and find it easier to engage with. The list below details some recommended online self-help materials and resources:
- Northumberland self help - this includes a large range of self-help guides that are available to download in several formats. Information is available on abuse, alcohol, anxiety, bereavement, self-esteem, depression, controlling anger, and much more.
- Moodjuice website - on the Moodjuice site, you can print off various self-help guides covering conditions such as depression, anxiety, stress, panic and sleep problems.
- Moodgym - Moodgym is a free, web based programme that a range of self-help information for low mood.
- Get Self Help - Get Self Help is a website based on CBT techniques and information.
- CCI Health - the CCI Health site focuses on anxiety, low mood and eating disorders.
- Life Signs - the Life Signs side aims to raise awareness about self-injury and provide information and support to people of all ages affected by self-injury.
- No More Panic - the No More Panic site provides information about Panic, Anxiety, Phobias and OCD.
- Big White Wall - this is the support network for emotional wellbeing. It also provides resources for Serving Personnel, Veterans and their families.
