I was referred months ago, when I could not cope with my everyday life. After a good three months, I was offered online sessions with a letter (I had already visited a private therapist in th emeantime, as I could not wait anymore). Then a lady called to confirm I could do ...one-to-one appointments! I told her about the letter offering online sessions. She was confused. She still booked me in for face to face sessions. Then she called back after a a few minutes. She said she had to speak with her manager before confirming I could use the face to face ones. She never got back to me that month. It was so sad I lost any trust in the service. Recently I received a call offering me telephone sessions. I agreed. I did two of them. I did not find them helpful. To be honest, I always found CBT very superficial (although I can see that some techniques can be helpful when used in other contexts -eg approaches like systemic therapy). I had tried CBT self-help books with no success. As this was the only free therapy available and I could not afford to continue going to the private ones, I thought I should try it with a real therapist, once. Well, I do not think that having a practitioner guiding me through the steps added something here. Let me note that I do not think it has to do with the particular practitioner but with the approach itself. A very specific protocol is followed, which I think it's impersonal and simplistic. To take it a step further, I actually think that CBT wants to save the therapist from the responsibility to act as a therapist. The practitioners are relying on an almost one-fits all tool, which is very inflexible. Regardless of the superficiality of CBT itself, I know that practitioners do not go through the years of study that a discipline like this demands. They go through a one-year course during which they are already allocated to an IAPT service. I let my practitioner know I did not want to continue, explaining why. I asked where I could leave feedback for the service. She replied ignoring my question and asking if I wanted to close the case or want other options. I replied asking what are the other options and repeating my question about feedback. No reply.
"Very bad service "
Posted via nhs.uk
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