Talking Therapies

Support for when you experience difficult emotions, such as low mood, anxiety and stress.

What are Talking Therapies?

NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression is a free and confidential NHS service for people aged 16 and over who are registered with a GP in Kensington and Chelsea, Queen’s Park and Paddington.

You can ask your GP to refer you or you can refer yourself easily online.

You can also use the Wysa referral assistant to help you.

If you are not registered with a GP in Kensington and Chelsea or Queen’s Park and Paddington, click here to find your local talking therapies service.

If your mental health deteriorates or if you experience any thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please contact the CNWL Single Point of Access Crisis Team on 0800 0234 650 or the Samaritans for free on 116 123.

Can Talking Therapies help me?

Talking Therapies provide a range of support if you are:

• experiencing difficult emotions such as low mood, worry or stress
• feeling overwhelmed by anxiety
• struggling with depression, or
• having trouble sleeping because of intrusive thoughts.

You can learn ways to improve your wellbeing and have the space to think about your difficulties and find ways to manage them better.

Talking Therapies can also help if you are living with a long-term physical health condition by finding ways to better manage the practical and emotional aspects.

What help does Talking Therapies offer?

The Talking Therapies team offers a range of different therapy options. The type of therapy you receive will be discussed with you and will depend on your recovery goals. The therapies available include:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

With the help of a therapist, CBT can help you identify alternative ways of thinking and more helpful ways of coping that are linked to difficult and distressing feelings, such as anxiety and low mood.

“The CBT therapist inspired me to find solutions to my problems by helping me deal with them in a positive way and breaking them down into smaller parts. Instead of just passively listening, she helped me to find practical ways to improve my state of mind on a daily basis.”

Counselling

Counselling can help you with experiences such as bereavement, relationship problems, abuse as a child or adult, depression or low mood, or life changes such as divorce, getting older or retirement. It is a brief psychological therapy in which you can explore difficult, confusing or painful experiences with the help of a clinician.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, the counselling helped me to feel better. I started to feel much lighter, like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I realised how much I’d gone through after talking about things that I’d never told anyone.”

Guided Self Help

You and a specially trained clinician work together, using expertly devised self-help workbooks. You will be helped to learn practical tools and strategies to better manage your difficulties. Sessions are available over the phone or face to face.

Couples’ Therapy

Aims to improve symptoms of depression by helping couples build upon the strengths in their relationship and understand the way in which difficulties in the relationship can contribute to depression in one or sometimes both partners.

Online Therapy

SilverCloud is an evidence-based online programme that can help teach you techniques based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to improve your mood. Telephone support is provided alongside the online modules.

Groups

A range of groups to help you manage stress, improve your mood and increase activity. We also have groups to help increase self-esteem, manage long-term health conditions, cope after a trauma or bereavement and use mindfulness to manage mood. See all upcoming groups on our Events calendar or read the full descriptions on our Groups and Courses page.

Other short-term Therapies

A range of other short-term therapies are also available. Suitable options for therapy will be discussed with you after an initial appointment (usually by phone).

All therapies available are effective treatments as recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).

“Life before I had therapy feels very different to life afterwards and I found the sessions incredibly helpful. Getting things off my chest and having someone who would listen to me was very beneficial as I felt like I had been living in my own head. Through my therapy I was able to accept that my life experience had been very different to most people’s. My abilities are different as I haven’t had the same experiences and opportunities.”

How to access Talking Therapies

You can refer yourself quickly and easily by:

• completing this online form
• email us at [email protected]
• or call 020 3317 4200*

Alternatively, you can ask your GP or other professional involved in your care to refer you to Community Living Well.

Please note: At times we may contact your GP after we have received your self-referral form. Although we normally try to speak with you and obtain your consent for this before we make contact, there are times we may need to make contact with your GP before we are able to discuss this with you. Through completing this form you are consenting to have your information stored confidentially on a secure database, separate from your GP’s system and for your GP to be informed of your contact with us.

See our Patient Information Leaflet about how we use your data.

* (If we try to call you, the number we’re calling from will show as 0207 504 5500 which is a CNWL NHS central number. To call us, use the Community Living Well number as shown above).

Community Living Well Talking Therapies are provided by CNWL NHS Foundation Trust

Next Steps

Once we have received your form, we will give you a call to talk about your needs; this usually happens within three working days of us receiving your form. Although we can offer most people an appointment within a week of receiving your form, this can vary depending on demand for the service.

Whether it be due to location or needs, in some cases the Talking Therapies service may not be the most suitable or appropriate service. We may signpost you on to other services in Kensington and Chelsea in order to ensure that you get the right type of support for you. For a list of other services in the area, please click here.

If you have significant difficulties with alcohol or recreational drugs please contact the Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service on 020 8960 5599 (020 7437 3523 for Queen’s Park and Paddington) or email [email protected] – our psychological therapies are only recommended when these problems have been adequately addressed.

Your therapy might be provided over the phone, online or face to face at one of the following locations:

• St Charles Centre for Health and Wellbeing, Exmoor Street, London, W10 6DZ
• Gertrude Street, 15 Gertrude Street, London, SW10 0JN