"Brought a lot of hope"

Like a few others, I've felt compelled to write about my experience after reading so many negative reviews. From April until September this year I had regular appointments with a therapist through IESO to help with social anxiety. Due to the nature of my issues, I didn't find it hard to keep to appointments, so this was never a problem for me - I share the concerns of those who were discharged after just two missed appointments. This is very worrying for NHS policy in general.

Anyway, I was fortunate to have a very thorough and understanding therapist (though I feel this should be the standard experience but at the same time I'm very grateful to him!). Prior to IESO, I had been prescribed antidepressants and following being on a waiting list from August until late December I was provided with an online CBT course through SilverCloud to complete. The SilverCloud course was not very appropriate for me or my problems so, suffice to say, I was feeling very hopeless and didn't think I could ever get any better. Following the course on SilverCloud, I was told I would be put on a waiting list for one-to-one CBT therapy. Due to the pandemic, this was not viable but actually seemed to speed the process up for me. I got a phone call in late March to say I could basically immediately get assigned a therapist through IESO digital health.

Entering instant messaging CBT, I was quite sceptical and, even though I struggle with social anxiety, I was feeling quite isolated so was hoping for some face to face contact. Because of this I was probably not particularly cooperative to start with but I stuck with the therapy and as I worked with my therapist I definitely felt like I was being listened to and was getting a tailored approach. Instant messaging is a bit odd to start with and it can feel like you can't fully express yourself but over time I did get used to it. I can see how the questionnaires can be quite overwhelming but also I can see how they were quite useful for my therapist to see any changes to my mood and behaviours. For example, one session he said he'd noticed higher scores on my PHQ questionnaire (to do with low mood), so we were able to discuss that. I might not have been forthcoming about that otherwise.

I thought initially that therapy was just going to be another fruitless exercise in ticking boxes but actually the use of worksheets and resources, shared through the messaging function in addition to just the scheduled sessions, has been so useful and I have a lot of useful stuff to utilise on my own having finished therapy and have seen a big difference to my behaviours, confidence and mood. I feel a lot better equipped to deal with anxiety and feel more hopeful for the future.