If appropriate after your assessment, your assessor may discuss an evidence-based approach with you called “Guided Self Help” to see if this is something you would be interested in trying. Guided Self Help uses interventions based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which may help if you’re having difficulty with stress, worry, phobia’s, panic, anxiety, low mood and a lack of motivation.
With this approach, you and your psychological wellbeing practitioner will work through a specific CBT based intervention, complimented by the use of a workbook which will guide you through the different tools and techniques that you can use to improve your mood. The material will help you gain an understanding of what is maintaining your difficulties and help you learn techniques that will help alleviate your symptoms. This may include setting realistic goals, looking at how you spend your time and how this can impact your mood, learning new ways to solve difficult problems, and learning how to overcome and face fears. They can also help you learn ways to challenge and overcome negative thinking and manage your worries.
Within the sessions we plan out how you are going to implement the therapeutic techniques you have learnt. You will be expected to complete self-guided tasks between sessions to benefit your wellbeing and support your progress. You do the activities at your own pace, and you can practice the techniques in a space you feel most comfortable, such as your own home. You are always in the driving seat, and your practitioner is guided by you, which means that the more you put into your treatment, the more you will get out of it.
Guided Self Help can be adapted when there are specific needs such as hearing impairments, reading or writing difficulties, need to use an interpreter or adaptations for physical health difficulties.
Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners can offer you up to 5 sessions, each session lasts up to 35 minutes, typically offered on a fortnightly basis. During each session we will ask you to complete a questionnaire to monitor and track your mood, they will also check-in on the progress you are making with the techniques. You will be offered support and guidance with any difficulties you may be having with the techniques.
Guided Self Help could be useful for you if you’re wanting to learn more about your mental health, what might be sustaining your difficulties, and you want to learn a variety of tools and techniques to help alleviate these symptoms and make day to day life more manageable. It’s often reported by people who complete Guided Self Help that they have a better understanding of their low mood and/or anxiety and feel more able to manage their difficulties both during and after treatment.
Bookshelf of self help guides
Our self help materials cover a range of mental health issues and are mini workbooks, offering information but structured around short exercises to help you recover.
Please visit the Self Help Guides page and click on any of the self help leaflets in the book case.
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