What types of help are available?

Following your initial assessment with Oakdale, you and the counsellor will agree upon a therapy pathway. You will discuss the most appropriate type of therapy and how this therapy will be delivered. For example, your sessions may be on an individual face to face basis, on the telephone, in couples, in groups, in the form of guided self-help or online.

Oakdale provides help recommended in guidelines from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). This includes:

Individual Therapy Sessions

Individual Therapy Sessions are offered on a face to face basis or on the telephone. This enables you to work individually with a therapist or counsellor to overcome your difficulties. Typically individual therapy involves sessions of 50 minutes each.

Counselling is a type of talking therapy. People talk to a counsellor about their problems. Counsellors are trained to listen sympathetically and can help people deal with any negative thoughts and feelings that they have.

As well as counselling, there are a number of other types of talking therapies. For example, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of talking therapy that can be used to retrain a person’s way of thinking to help them cope with stressful situations.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends certain types of talking therapies for treating a number of different health conditions.

For example, counselling may be helpful in treating:

• depression

• anxiety

• obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• long-term illnesses

• eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia

• substance abuse

Counselling can help people to:

• discuss their problems honestly and openly

• deal with issues that are preventing them from achieving their goals and ambitions

• have a more positive outlook on life

Everyone has different ways of coping with their personal difficulties. People often deal with stressful situations and events by talking to their partner, a family member or a friend. However, in certain situations, talking to a professional counsellor may be more helpful.

Counselling can be a positive way of addressing any unresolved issues that you have. It can help you to understand your problems better, rather than ignoring them and hoping that they will go away, only for them to come back later. It can also give you a better understanding of other people's points of view.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

CBT can help you to change how you think (cognitive) and what you do (behaviour). These changes can help you to feel better. Unlike some of the other talking therapies, it focuses on the problems and difficulties in the "here and now" instead of addressing the causes of your distress or symptoms. CBT looks for ways to improve your state of mind by exploring how you currently think about yourself, the world and other people and how that affects your reaction to situations.

Strong data exists that CBT is as effective as antidepressants in reducing depression symptoms by the end of treatment. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends CBT should be offered to a patient when they are diagnosed as having mild to moderate mental illness such as depression and anxiety and also more severe illnesses such as schizophrenia. (for more information about NICE recommendations see below).

CBT is usually provided by a psychologist but doctors, nurses, counsellors and Social Workers may also be able to do this. Sessions are usually weekly and last about an hour.

Computerised CBT

Computerised CBT has been shown to be useful for helping people identify and overcome their difficulties. Oakdale uses a number of different computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy packages. Computerised CBT can be accessed online on any computer with a broadband internet connection. You can therefore complete sessions at your own computer or one you have access to or at a local venue provided by Oakdale.

Guided Self Help

Guided Self Help is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and can be undertaken either in person or over the telephone. The therapist will give you workbooks which should be completed between sessions. It helps individuals change the way they feel by developing practical strategies to help deal with problems. Guided self help has been shown to be useful for both anxiety and depression or low mood.

Couples Counselling

In couples therapy, the psychologist will help you and your partner identify the conflict issues within your relationship, and will help you decide what changes are needed, in the relationship and in the behaviour of each partner, for both of you to feel satisfied with the relationship. Couples therapy involves learning how to communicate more effectively, and how to listen more closely. Couples must learn how to avoid competing with each other, and need to identify common life goals and how to share responsibilities within their relationship. Sometimes the process is similar to individual psychotherapy, sometimes like mediation, sometimes educational. The combination of these three components is what makes it effective.

Therapy Groups

Therapy Groups are run on a regular basis with themes such as “Managing your moods”, “Feeling better about yourself”, "Relating to others”, “Problem solving” and “Low self-esteem”. Typically there will be between 8 and 12 people in a therapy group. Many people find groups a helpful way of understanding and dealing with their problems and gain valuable insights from meeting others with similar difficulties.

Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR)

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment method that uses eye movements to stimulate the brain. EMDR has been shown to make distressing memories feel less intense.

EMDR can be used to treat a number of traumas, such as addictions, accidents and injuries, phobias, and sexual, physical or emotional abuse. NICE recommends EMDR for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Behavioural Activation

Behavioural activation is an effective treatment for depression because it targets the role of avoidance in depression. It is focused on activities to help patients re-establish daily routines, increase pleasurable activities and address important necessary issues.

Interpersonal Therapy

Interpersonal Therapy is a type of therapy which focuses on helping a person to understand how their difficulties may be connected to their relationships with others. It is time limited and focused on relationship difficulties experienced by the clients. The aim of the therapy is to identify any relationship problems and their impact on the client. The therapist will assist the client to identify ways to cope with these difficulties and to strengthen their interpersonal relationships.