"Social anxiety/Depression"

I came to therapy having struggled massively with anxiety and depression, desperate to overcome my worries that I felt were restricting me greatly in my social, personal and professional life. Prior to this, the only real coping strategy I had was a dependence on weed.

Working with the therapist helped me to not only understand where some of these negative feelings and worries were coming from, but also to develop strong, easy, reliable and healthy coping strategies - ones that I could do when out socialising, during parties in my flat, when on my own, all kinds of situations. It helped encourage me to force myself into more uncomfortable situations as an exposure therapy, pushing the boat out further in terms of what I felt confident that I could handle.

When I went through a period of deep depression and suicidal ideologies during the course of my treatment, my therapist offered a safe space to say the things that I couldn’t say to anyone else. Allowed me to voice my thoughts without any need to care about what others thought, which I think helped a lot. We drew up a framework of ways to keep me safe during this period, and helped me soldier through the pain - and have come out the other side a more secure and aware person.

I’m not sure if I can name the therapist here, but I think she did a fantastic job! An experience that I really really needed during an exceptionally difficult time for me. And now I feel I am on the path to recovery, and am working more and more on being able to sit with uncertainty, feel calm under social situations that before I wouldn’t even show up to. Can’t thank her enough! And would highly recommend those who need it to go along.

I think my only complaint would be that I wish I had more time, however due to moving back home and therefore out of the therapists jurisdiction, it wasn’t possible to continue, although we still managed to get 10 sessions out of it. In a perfect world I could keep it going for as long as I needed, however I understand that due to demand and lack of resources, this isn’t possible.

However, I have been informed that should I feel I desperately need more in the future, I can always reapply, and can do so now without the apprehension of whether it’s worth it - because it is worth it.