"Life changing experience"

I first contacted the service several years after I had already had CBT/Therapy from a private therapist in 2018. Since then I have never been as low as I had been, but I also never felt as though I had truly left the negative thoughts and behaviors behind. The poor condition I was in mentally, was still affecting me, not as severely, but consistently nonetheless, affecting my professional and personal life in equal measure.

As a result, I was put in touch with Inclusion Thurrock by my GP. After an initial assessment, I was invited on the Time for Change seminar and shortly after I was scheduled for one-to-one sessions with one of the services therapist.

We carefully unpicked my current situation and it soon became clear to me, that although I hadn’t been as low as I had been, there were problems there which were dominating my life at almost every level. One by one, from my anxiety issues, through to my issues with low self-esteem and poor self-body image, we worked through all of them, finding ways to challenge my beliefs about myself and rationalising some of the destructive thoughts I’d been having. I have had a bad history with food and body image, which is something I thought would keep me down for the rest of my life, and though the therapy I was having wasn’t designed for that purpose, It has got me to the point where I have felt in control of it for the first time on over 10 years.

After 18 sessions over 20 weeks, I can honestly say that I am now in the best place I have been since I was in my teens. Now being in my thirties, I had almost forgotten how it felt to feel relatively free of anxiety, depression and all of the demons I had experienced. My previous sessions with a private therapist didn’t really get to the bottom of what it was that was driving this behaviour and I felt I was let go too early to really correct the issues that I had been facing. Georgina, from Inclusion, really took the time to understand all of my problems and tackled them one by one, equipping me with the tools I needed to first of all recognise the patterns and then to overcome them. Georgina was so kind and understanding of my situation and although some sessions were particularly hard emotionally, the revelations that came from them were some of the most powerful experiences of my life. I honestly could not thank her enough.

It was not easy, it took time and patience but I am so much happier now and anxiety free, it really feels like breathing again after drowning for so long. I feel able now, to go forward and continually look after myself, which I couldn’t before. Not only that but I didn’t think it was possible to feel this way. Working with Inclusion and Georgina really changed my perspective and helped me to help myself and I am eternally grateful for their support and understanding.