Dr Dominic Glover, Clinical Lead & Clinical Psychologist at Hounslow IAPT
Dr Dominic Glover, Clinical Lead & Clinical Psychologist at Hounslow IAPT

For many of us, January can be a difficult month. With long evenings and poor weather combined with what may have been an expensive festive period, it’s no wonder that some of us may feel down or depressed.

If this feeling continues, there are a number of ways that the NHS can help. One way is through talking therapy, which aims to help people change how they are feeling by talking. There are a range of different types of talking therapy, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), counselling and psychotherapy.

CBT has a here-and-now focus and helps people to identify and make changes to unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaviour. Counselling aims to give people a non-judgemental space to talk about how they are feeling and to enable them to process a range of difficult emotions.

Psychotherapy has more of an emphasis on the past, particularly on early relationships with caregivers, and tends to be more exploratory in nature.

At West London Mental Health NHS Trust , most of our talking therapy takes place within our Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services. We work in partnership with third sector counselling organisations (Anchor Counselling and West London Centre for Counselling) and employment services (Twining Enterprise and Mental Health Matters) to provide psychological therapies and employment support for adults with depression and anxiety in the boroughs of Hounslow, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham.

The main therapy provided within our services is CBT, in both group and individual format. We also work in partnership with local community organisations in order to improve access for people who are less likely to access talking therapy, such as older adults and people from black and minority ethnic groups.

You can be referred to IAPT services through your GP or, depending on local service arrangements, you can self-refer. Our initial assessment is normally carried out over the phone following which a range talking therapy options are discussed.

We would always recommend seeking help early before difficulties become too advanced. To find out more about talking therapies and how to access them, please visit www.wlmht.nhs.uk