Step 3 Interventions

 
Step 3 interventions aim to support people experiencing moderate to severe depression/anxiety. At Step 3 you will be offered more intensive support you to enable you to overcome what is happening for you. Interventions include:
 

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): We offer individual CBT therapy to help people explore how thoughts, feelings and behaviours may interact and affect their mood. CBT can be offered to those experiencing depression and/or anxiety disorders. This involves working together with a therapist to understand your difficulties, and develop strategies in order to cope. As part of the therapy, it can be useful to agree on tasks to complete in between meetings, so that work can continue outside of session times. This is a time limited therapy and this is usually discussed at the first meeting with a therapist.
 
Interpersonal Psychotherapy: IPT is based on exploring issues in relationships with other people, and can currently be offered to people experiencing moderate levels of depression. It explores your relationships with peers, family members and the way you see yourself.
 
The goal is to work with your therapist to understand and identify interpersonal problems, and to manage relationship difficulties. During therapy, one or two current problem areas are chosen to focus on.
 
Examples of areas covered are disputes with friends, family or co-workers, grief and loss, and role transitions, such as retirement or divorce. This is a time limited therapy and this is usually discussed at the first meeting with a therapist.
 
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR): EMDR is effective in treating people who have psychological difficulties as a result of traumatic experiences, such as assault, road traffic accidents, and sexual abuse. During therapy the therapist will help you to recall emotionally disturbing events for very short periods, whilst at the same time focussing attention on something different such as eye movements, hand tapping, or audio-tones. EMDR aims to lower distress by changing the brain's way of processing disturbing memories and cope more effectively in situations that trigger anxiety. This is a time limited therapy and this is usually discussed at the first meeting with a therapist.
 
GROUPS:
 
'One step at a time' is a ten session group programme which aims to equip you with the skills needed to break the cycle of depression. The programme will help you to identify activities in your life that you have stopped engaging in and wish to become involved in again. It is not about 'just doing more' sometimes it may be beneficial to do less! All of the people in the group are experiencing depression and understand how hard it can be. The programme aims to help you learn to recognise traps that stop you from doing the things you would like to do and to incorporate new activities into your daily routines so that they become new habits that lead to improvements in the quality of your life.
 
The 'Low Self Esteem' group looks at how low self esteem develops and the way it can impact upon different areas of our lives. It explores how through our own experiences and beliefs we can develop vicious circles that can maintain our low self esteem through negative thinking styles and 'safety' behaviours. Do you find that you are self critical, struggle with assertiveness, and compare yourself to others a lot? Contact Talking Change for further information.