"Misleading and upsetting"

I’ve struggled with my mental health for years now mostly due to past trauma. I also have a disability which makes work difficult and therefore do not have much money to spare so I cannot afford private therapy. Therefore I was optimistic when I found out about LTT ( formerly know as steps2change ) and genuinely thought I might finally get some support.

I was wrong. This service should not be called ‘talking therapies’ as there was no talking involved apart from a 20 minute initial assessment in which only fraction of time was about me. I was then offered either an online group CBT or online CBT course. No other types of therapy were offered or even mentioned; CBT is not suitable for everyone which should have been a red flag in retrospect.

I was reluctant to share private mental health issues with strangers so I went with the online course. After waiting for five weeks (I was aware of long waiting periods beforehand ) I was given a log in to silvercloud. Again there was no talking involved whatsoever. Just a point and click course with 7 modules about 10 short pages long with names such ‘understanding depression’ and ‘noticing feelings’. As some one who has lived with depression for several years I am aware depression can cause ‘unpleasant emotions’ and these modules came off as a little condescending to me at least. Your ‘supporter’ would check your progress once a week and you can leave messages to be fair, but again, there was no individuality involved and I did not feel comfortable using an online message system for mental health conversations.

After not logging in for a week I was discharged from the service, which to be fair I was informed about, however I can’t bring myself to be too disappointed. This service was not worth waiting five weeks for where I could have been searching for other help. The entire experience was very misleading and more than a little upsetting.