Swindon Talking Therapies

During your appointment with the Talking Therapies service, you will be asked to complete the following routine service questionnaires. These are used to monitor your mood and help us to understand what treatment or support might be suitable for you. The questionnaires relate to the last two weeks and ask you score how often you have experienced different symptoms. You can find the questionnaire here.

Talking Therapies offer short-term, evidence based psychological interventions for common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. An assessment is an opportunity for you to speak with a practitioner to discuss your current to discuss your current difficulties, your current goals and to consider how the talking therapies service may be able to support you in reaching them. From this discussion, we may consider treatment options within our service such as courses, online guided self-help or one to one sessions, but sometimes we may suggest other services or resources if we feel that your needs may be best supported outside of talking therapies.

What can I expect from a Talking Therapy assessment?

An assessment appointment with Talking Therapies will last up to 45 minutes and is usually over the telephone. However if accessing an assessment via telephone is difficult for you, we will work with you to find a suitable alternative such as a video or face-to-face appointment.

During the assessment, the practitioner will share with you some information about our service and there will be opportunity for you to discuss your reasons for accessing our service. You and the practitioner will then work together to discuss possible options and make a plan based on your discussion.

The practitioner will also complete some questionnaires with you to rate how often you have experienced common symptoms of depression and anxiety over the past two weeks, plus some additional questions about areas of your life that are being impacted by these symptoms such as work, hobbies and relationships. We email these to you approximately 24-48 hours before your session so that you can complete them online in advance if you prefer.

Creating a problem statement and goals:

During your assessment, the practitioner will guide you to create a problem statement and goals. A problem statement is a summary of the main problem that you would like to focus on and will include key parts of your discussion including how the problem affects your life, the symptoms that you experience and situations or triggers that make the problem better or worse. Along with your problem statement, we will support you to consider some goals that relate to this problem that can support us and you to consider which treatment options may be most suitable.

It can be helpful if you have been able to consider some of your goals or reasons for accessing talking therapies before your assessment, but we will also support you to do this during the appointment. If you would like to think about your goals before your assessment, there is some helpful goal setting information here.

Privacy, confidentiality and information sharing:

To support the wellbeing of people who access Talking Therapies, it is important that we share some information with others who may be involved in your care and wellbeing.

• Talking Therapies will inform your GP that you are receiving support from our service.
• We will update your GP with your attendance and a brief summary of the outcome of your assessment or therapies with us.
• Occasionally, we may also liaise with other mental health services or agencies such as our safeguarding team to ensure you and others around you are safe and supported.
• Like any medical appointment, we will keep records of your attendance and include a summary of your progress. We will also look at the details in your completed pre-session questionnaire.  

At the start of your assessment, the practitioner will advise you of our confidentiality statement and you are welcome to ask any questions about this.

Talking Therapies does not routinely share information with third parties such as family members, workplaces or other agencies unless we have your consent to do so. An exemption to this is young people under the age of 18, where we may need to share some information with a parent or guardian should we feel additional support around your safety and wellbeing is necessary. For more information, click here.

What happens if I am referred for one to one sessions or online guided self-help within Talking Therapies after my assessment?

If agreed in your assessment, that one to one therapy or online guided self-help with Talking Therapies can support your problem and goals, you will be added to our waiting list. We are unable to give the exact time you will wait for your treatment to start, but the practitioner can estimate how long our current waiting list is.

During your wait, the practitioner may give your some information to read, self-help material to work through or some links to other resources. Using these can be a helpful way to kick-start your therapy and begin working on some of your goals.

Should you feel that your symptoms are worsening whilst you wait, we would encourage you to discuss this with your GP and refer to our ‘Keeping Safe’ leaflet for additional helplines and advice.

Our group courses take place online using video meeting software called Microsoft Teams.

If you are interested in attending a course, please book an appointment for an initial assessment with our service by calling 01793 836836.

To attend our online courses, you need a device with internet access. This can be a laptop, mobile phone or tablet with an internet browser so you can use Microsoft Teams. We will email you an invite with a link to join the session and will include details of how to use Microsoft Teams.

How we run our courses

We run a wide range of free courses to support people with different psychological and emotional difficulties. 

To make them as accessible as possible, our courses run in the day or evening. They are usually short courses which can be up to 8 weeks in length. 

We value everyone’s need to feel as comfortable and welcome as possible, so we encourage you to take part in discussions and ask questions only if you want to. There is no expectation to do anything or speak on your own if you feel uncomfortable to do so. 

How to book a course 

Our current courses are listed at the bottom of this page and are available for people registered with a GP in Swindon. We recommend that you only book one course at a time to make the most of the content. 

For more information or to book a course, please contact our team on 01793 836836 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). 

Living with a long-term physical health condition can be challenging both physically and emotionally. The symptoms of health conditions can affect your day-to-day functioning and they often require active and demanding self-management, which can negatively impact your emotional wellbeing.

Within the Talking Therapies service, we offer a wide range of support for many different long-term health conditions, including:

• chronic pain
• fatigue
• diabetes (type 1 and type 2)
• respiratory conditions (e.g. asthma, COPD),
• cardiac disease
• long COVID
• irritable bowel syndrome

Talking Therapies offer a variety of treatment options based on an approach called cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which seeks to change our thoughts and behaviours to improve our physical state and emotional feelings. CBT is an evidence-based treatment for long-term health conditions and is a recommended component of rehabilitation and treatment programmes by the NICE guidelines.

Our available treatment options are delivered in a variety of formats, including:

• online
• virtual
• guided self-help
• one-to-one appointments
• group-based workshops

Below is an overview of the various services we offer for some of the more common long-term health conditions. To book a course or to find out more information, contact your local Talking Therapies service on 01793 836836.