"Not feeling I could talk"

Hi couragerj53,

I'm Faye, I'm the Clinical Lead at Rotherham Talking Therapies. Apologies for the delay in responding, I've just got back from annual leave and wanted to ensure I had enough time to sit and respond properly.

Thank you sincerely for sharing your honest thoughts about the sessions you had with us, this kind of open feedback is one of the few ways we can really understand what it is like for a patient accessing the service. So firstly, thank you. I hope you don't mind me writing a bit of a wordy response on here, as I want to cover everything you've shared and hopefully think of a plan moving forwards.

I'm sorry to hear that you felt cut off in your sessions, by the name of the service being 'Talking Therapies' it's completely understandable that you would come to your appointment expecting and hoping to be able to talk freely about what brought you here, and it sounds like that hasn't been your experience. I'm sad to hear that you felt unheard, sad, angry and uncomfortable, this isn't how we want patients to feel at any point during their treatment. Our assessment and treatment sessions are structured, but we try to adhere to this while also ensuring our patient feels understood and has ample space to share why they've come into the service and what they'd like to get out of treatment. We haven't got that balance right for you, and I'm glad to know this is the case as if somebody has a poor experience and doesn't share it, we can't do anything to make it right.

I hear also that being asked to answer our weekly questionnaires got in the way of the session, and that you were asked to wait so the clinician could catch up on documenting the information you shared. Although the questionnaires provide us and patients with information that goes towards making the right decisions around treatment, it shouldn't feel like they are the focus of each appointment over being able to speak openly about the things that brought you to therapy. If you were open to giving the service another try, we can instead send these out via SMS prior to an appointment so that you can fill them out from home, saving more time in session to really discuss things instead of complete the questionnaires.

And I'm sorry too that it felt as though you were being asked a lot about any thoughts around self harm and suicide. Our clinicians are trained to check this out at each session with each patient, as this can change week to week. In the context of feeling unheard, cut off, and not listened to, I'm sure this didn't really feel like a helpful use of your session time.

I'm not sure whether you would feel open to considering a referral back into the service to explore what support we could offer, I do understand if you've been put off by the experience. But I would really appreciate the opportunity to have a chat with you via telephone or Teams, to further discuss your experience and explore together whether you would be open to a new assessment. I don't have any of your details as this website is anonymous, but if you were able to call us on 03000 215 108 and leave a message with your name/date of birth, and ask for Faye to give you a call, admin will pass this along to me and I can send you an SMS with a date/time I'll give you a ring (which we can change if it isn't suitable).

I hope to hear from you, and thank you again for taking the time to let us know about your experience.

Kindest regards,

Faye

Clinical Lead