NHS Bexley Talking Therapies

Logo for the Mind in Bexley NHS Bexley Talking Therapies

Do you want to talk to our Talking Therapies Service?

Please call 0208 303 8932 option 1.

About Us

Mind in Bexley provides access to a wide range of talking therapies and online therapy treatments for adults with common mental health problems.

NHS Bexley Talking Therapies, our Talking Therapies Service, is funded by the NHS and delivered in our Mind in Bexley office,  online, by phone, in children’s community centres and GP surgeries. This service is only available to Bexley residents aged 18+.

How can NHS Bexley Talking Therapies help?

We can offer support to those struggling with low mood, frustration, depression, anxiety, sleeping difficulties that have an impact on your daily life e.g. work, relationships, family life or caring role.

Referral for NHS Bexley Talking Therapies

If you are 18+, a Bexley resident and struggling with mild-moderate anxiety or depression we are here to support you.

To refer to our NHS Bexley Talking Therapies Service which includes counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or online therapy You must be a Bexley Borough resident over the age of 18 to access our services.

Anyone accessing the NHS Bexley Talking Therapies Service must read and agree to our CLIENT AGREEMENT WITH CONSENT agreement, consent will also be obtained verbally.

What will happen when I refer to Mind in Bexley?

After we have reviewed the information on your referral, one of our administrators will contact you to arrange an initial assessment this will be a telephone or face-to-face appointment lasting approximately 30 minutes. You will be invited to tell us more about your current problem and help us to identify the most appropriate support option for your needs.

We will do our best to ensure we offer you an appointment that suits your circumstances and supports your individual preferences, including considering accessible locations and any translator requirements.

Supported Self-help programme

Supported self-help is a free, five session programme. We give you the materials to understand and manage your feelings. And we call you regularly to give you support.

SilverCloud

We have invested in SilverCloud® by Amwell® mental health programmes. Backed by 20 years of research, they are the global leader of clinically proven digital Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programmes.

SilverCloud® mental health programmes are completely free to you, and they have already helped over 1 million people to feel better. In fact, most patients showed improvements in just three months.

Mental Health Support

Our service offers a wide range of therapeutic support including counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), group therapy and online therapy. Your initial assessment will assist with identifying the appropriate treatment for you.

CBT shows the link between thoughts, feelings and behaviour and helps you to break negative patterns in order to improve your mood. By changing one aspect of the cycle for e.g. behaviour it can have a positive impact on the rest.

CBT teaches you coping skills for dealing with different problems. It focuses on how your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect your feelings and actions.

CBT is a common treatment for many mental health problems and experiences, including:

  • Depression
  • Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
  • Health Anxiety
  • Social Anxiety
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Specific Phobia
  • Panic Disorder
  • And trauma related conditions

CBT can involve activities for you to do outside your sessions with a therapist. This might include filling in worksheets or keeping a diary.

You may need to commit your own time to complete the work over the course of treatment. You may also need to continue this after the treatment has ended.

Many of our life stresses, sadness and anxieties mean we operate on “Automatic Pilot” and miss the enjoyment of the “here and now” because we are caught up with worries or regrets. Mindfulness Classes teach us to create self-awareness and the space to open up, experience and notice the present moment and enable us to choose how we respond to all of our experiences, including difficult ones.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is carried out by specially trained therapists and is recommended for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). When a person is involved in a distressing event, they may feel overwhelmed and their brain may be unable to process the information like a normal memory. The alternating left-right stimulation of the brain with eye movements, sounds or taps during EMDR, seems to stimulate the frozen or blocked information processing system.

In the process the distressing memories seem to lose their intensity, so that the memories are less distressing and seem more like ‘ordinary’ memories.

Our highly trained CBT Psychotherapists offer individual appointments for those requiring more intensive support than Group or Guided Self Help CBT. These appointments require a commitment to attend regularly: usually weekly or fortnightly for a set period of time.
Our CBT Psychotherapists will also ask you to practise your new CBT skills outside the sessions, at home and at work, helping you to recover from your depression and anxiety.
The number of sessions varies from problem to problem, but follows NICE guidelines.

Counselling

Our counselling can offer you a safe time and place to talk about your feelings with a trained professional counsellor. This can lead you to increased insight and awareness, and help you to resolve your personal and psychological problems.

There are three different types of counselling modalities offered in Bexley Talking Therapies

IPT is a time limited and structured psychotherapy for the treatment of people with moderate to severe depression.

Depression must be the client’s presenting problem and a current episode – not historic. (When did their depression start?). How are their relationships being affected.

IPT focuses on the relationship difficulties and on helping individuals to understand how their depressed mood can also affect the quality of their relationships.

IPT works with four focus areas.

Depression must be linked to one of these focus areas:

Role Transition: Life changes, being unable to cope with the demands regarding a new situation, e.g. Divorce, losing a job, retirement etc.

Role Dispute: Having a current dispute with a significant other. (Home/Work/Friend). Have they become stuck in disagreements/arguments. They must be willing to speak with this individual to resolve the situation.

Complicated Grief. It is natural to feel sad following the loss of a significant other. Sometimes it can be very difficult to adjust to life without that individual and they may find they are unable to carry on with their normal activities and other relationships.

Interpersonal Sensitivities: Difficulties in starting or keeping relationships going. Some people may have noticed they have had difficulties in their relationships for several reasons e.g. not feeling as close to others as they would like. Not having anyone to turn to for support or company can leave them with feelings of loneliness. This is the only focus area that also works with past relationships.

Clients must have the willingness to engage with their support network or outside support to aid their recovery.

Client must be willing to engage with a structured therapy for up to 16 weekly sessions.

What is DIT (Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy)?

It is a time-limited psychodynamic therapy (16 sessions).

It has been specifically developed for the treatment of depression.

Difficult experiences in the past, including difficult relationships, can continue to affect the way you feel and behave in the present.

DIT provides a space to talk and explore how you feel and to understand what might have contributed to feelings of depression.

An example of this could be: someone who has been repeatedly rejected as a child by their parents may stop themselves thinking about how painful this is. As an adult, they may withdraw from relationships, feeling that it is safer to be alone (less pain) and not depending on anyone. Although not getting close to anyone may help them to feel safe, it could cause them to feel lonely and lead to them feeling depressed. In the course of day-to-day life, people might not notice how they are behaving and responding to others, as it becomes second nature: “the way things are”.

The focus of DIT draws attention to this pattern in relationships, helping you to understand yourself better and to find a way to change the way you respond.

What is PCE-CFD?

Person-Centred Experiential Counselling for Depression (PCE-CfD) is an integration of Person-Centred and Experiential therapies. It is an evidence-based treatment for depression within IAPT and is provided as a time limited therapy. It involves the therapist empathically tracking the client’s process and involves an exploration of the client’s feelings, making sense of them and drawing on the new meanings to make positive changes. It involves an exploration of incongruences between how a person feels they actually are and how they feel they should be. That exploration typically leads to a reduction in internal self-conflict through a combination of personal change and greater self-acceptance. PCE-CfD is helpful if you want to talk through your feelings, experiences, difficulties to come to a better understanding of yourself and find appropriate ways forward, with the support of a counsellor. You need to be interested in working with an emotion focus and need to be able to introspect and reflect psychologically and want to engage in personal change

“I wasn’t really sure what to expect from talking therapy before I started. I was surprised how therapy was able to help me address my anxiety with the skills that I have learned. I am very thankful and grateful.”

Quote from an NHS Bexley Talking Therapies client