Available Therapies
Sunderland Talking Therapies offers a wide range of therapies to support your mental health and wellbeing.
Whether you’re looking for support with anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns, this page will help you learn more about the therapies we offer so you can make the choice that feels right for you. All current therapy options are listed below.
Please be aware that we cannot diagnose medical conditions or prescribe medication. If you need advice about these, please contact your GP.
Carers Therapy
Accessing Carer’s therapy will help you to focus on you and think about what you want. The therapist will work with you to think about your situation, consider your options, and find ways to cope. In therapy, you will be able to explore your feelings, including your relationship with the person you care for. This is likely to help you find your own solutions and make decisions about your life.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a structured, active, and collaborative therapy. The therapist will work alongside you to help change any unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours that are causing or maintaining your current difficulties.
You will be given the opportunity to discuss your problems in relation to how you think about yourself, the world, and other people as well as how what you do, or don’t do, affects how you think and feel.
Treatment usually involves practical exercises and experiments worked on with the therapist and as homework between sessions. CBT mainly focuses on your here and now’ problems and difficulties, but a “formulation-based approach” also considers the influence of previous existing difficulties.
Counselling
Counselling offers one to one intervention to individuals who have emotional or mental distress which could include stress, bereavement, grief and loss. This may be offered either in-house by the counsellor at Sunderland Talking Therapies or through a counsellor from one of our partner organisations, please see Partner Organisations page.
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is used for individuals who have post-traumatic stress disorder or have experienced single / ’one-off’ trauma that remains unresolved, which can leave them feeling overwhelmed and their brain cannot process the information as a ‘normal’ memory.
When a person recalls an unresolved memory, they can re-experience what they saw, heard, felt, smelt or tasted and this can be intense. Sometimes the memories are so distressing the person tries to avoid thinking about them or avoids things related to the memory, to avoid re-experiencing distressing feelings.
With careful preparation and the support of your therapist, EMDR includes focusing on the traumatic images, thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations of the distressing memory whilst activating the left and right side of the brain. This activates the unresolved distressing memory and allows processing of the memory to take place. The distressing memory gradually loses its intensity to then become a ‘normal’ memory. The lingering effects and distress of the memory reduce, releasing the negative self-beliefs related to the trauma.
EMDR can be a powerful and sometimes rapid treatment. It does not require detailed description of the trauma event, exposure work or homework outside of the treatment sessions.
Guided Self-Help
Guided Self-Help is based on the idea that people are usually the best managers of their own mental health. The treatment involves working through self-help materials to understand and manage problems such as low mood, depression, anxiety and panic. This is supported by short sessions with a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP).
Guided Self-Help is based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This type of therapy is all about how our thoughts, feelings and behaviours link together and sometimes maintain problems we are having. The materials used will be tailored to your individual needs, preferences and goals.
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a structured therapy for people with moderate to severe depression. A central idea in IPT is that psychological symptoms, such as depressed mood, can be understood as a response to current difficulties in our everyday interactions with others. In turn, the depressed mood can also affect the quality of these interactions.
When a person is able to interact more effectively with others, their psychological symptoms often improve. IPT typically focuses on the following relationship areas:
- Conflict with another person
- Life changes that affect how you feel about yourself and others
- Grief and loss
- Difficulty in starting or keeping relationships going
SilverCloud
SilverCloud is an online Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CCBT) programme, proven to help with stress, depression and anxiety. The programme was designed based on the idea that people are usually the best managers of their own mental health.
SilverCloud is interactive and informative and will provide you with a space to reflect and learn techniques that can help to improve the way you are feeling. SilverCloud is easy to use and you can access it online as often as you like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You receive regular online reviews from a practitioner to support you with using the programme.
