Mental Health Support FAQs

Emotional wellbeing is every bit as important as physical wellbeing, but it’s often overlooked. In fact, your emotional and physical wellbeing are very closely linked and have a significant impact on each other.

We specialise in delivering effective psychological treatments designed to help you overcome difficulties (such as anxiety and depression) and get back to living your life. We do this by working with you as a team to:

1. understand the problems you are experiencing;
2. agree what you want to achieve; and
3. help you reach your goals by delivering the correct treatment – the support you receive will be unique to you as we match the treatment to your needs.

We are dedicated to providing a quality service and sustainable positive outcomes. In 2020 we delivered 86,600 treatment sessions equivalent to 5.1 million minutes of treatment. 98% (9/10) patients completing treatment reported an improvement in emotional wellbeing.

If you’re experiencing a long-term physical health problem, it’s around 3 times more likely that you are also experiencing emotional difficulties. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that if you have a physical health problem and emotional difficulties, it’s more difficult to recover from your physical health problem.

At Nuffield Health we understand this and can offer experienced psychological therapists to support you before, during and after you receive treatment for your physical health.

This assessment is to identify the best possible treatment for you. You’ll have the opportunity to talk with a qualified therapist, discuss your difficulties and together decide the best way to achieve your goals.

The aim is for you and your therapist to work as a team to achieve your therapy goals. These will be decided in your first session – you’ll identify thought and behaviour patterns that may be causing your problems, and plan a structured way forward.

You’ll meet with your therapist for around an hour a week to discuss agreed topics in a solution-focused and practical way. You’ll learn techniques for improving your symptoms and changing your behaviour, and gradually learn to become your own therapist.

A key part of the treatment is the homework or field work assignments that you and your therapist come up with. These may include reading material or specific tasks that give you the opportunity to practice techniques, or to gradually confront your fears with the support and guidance of your therapist.

CBT is a short-term treatment usually conducted weekly, each session around an hour long. The number of sessions very much depend on the type of problem(s) you experience.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can help you to solve problems and improve the way you think and feel through a solution-focused and goal-oriented programme. Common cognitive behavioural therapy techniques include:

• Challenging unhelpful thoughts or beliefs, and replacing them with more helpful ones
• Re-engaging with activities that give you pleasure
• Mindfulness exercises
• Graded exposure
• Assertiveness
• Skills training for specific situations
• Relaxation techniques.

The success of CBT depends on your active participation and commitment to your therapy. Attending sessions regularly and completing homework will greatly increase the effectiveness of therapy.

There is always a risk that your problems may return following your discharge. That’s why your CBT sessions will also focus on relapse prevention skills and techniques, so you’ll be well equipped to tackle your symptoms early if they start to come back. That’s why it’s important to keep practicing your CBT skills, even after you’re feeling better.

We have appointments with our therapists available now so we can easy book you in. You’ll have a dedicated booking coordinator who’ll arrange your appointments and be available to contact throughout your treatment if you have any queries or concerns, or need to cancel or rearrange therapy.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you need to cancel or rearrange an appointment. If you don’t attend or you cancel within 24 hours of your appointment, you may be subject to charges, and frequent cancellations will impact on your progress.

Simply call your booking coordinator on 0333 1234 106. Please let us know more than 24 hours beforehand or we’ll have to charge you £35 for the short notice.

Please speak to your booking coordinator as soon as possible and we’ll try to accommodate your request.

We are unable to give you a full detailed list of therapists that we work with in your area. This is due to data protection regulations and the fact that we need to secure your appointment to make sure they’re available before offering their service to you.

We can however outline, anonymously, the type of therapists we have in your area, e.g. ‘Therapist 1, male, 3 miles from you, specialisms include trauma. Therapist 2, female, 2 miles from you, specialisms include depression and adjustment reactions’. When your appointment is secured, you’ll of course be given your therapist’s full details.

Not all therapists have an online presence, but you can be assured that all the therapists we work with are fully BABCP accredited and work with us to deliver high-quality therapy.

The fee charged by Nuffield Health per treatment session may be higher than the therapist would charge directly to you. This reflects the fact that we carefully manage all aspects of your care from referral to discharge:

• We answer any questions from you and your therapist: We ensure that any difficulties are resolved promptly to prevent an ineffective or unsatisfactory therapy experience, for example by changing your therapist.
• We clinically govern your care: Currently in the UK, anyone can call themselves a psychotherapist or CBT therapist. We ensure that therapists are safe and appropriately qualified to treat you by carrying out all accreditation, DBS, qualification and insurance checks. And we regularly audit this information for every therapist we work with.
• We liaise with other health professionals for you: If you need a referral to another source of support, such as a GP or psychiatrist, we’ll arrange this for you at no extra cost.

All our therapists endeavour to complete treatment within the funding you have, if this is not possible, we’ll help you to access other sources of support.

You must inform us immediately if anything changes, as your therapy won’t be able to continue, unless you self pay.