"Depression and Recovery"

I had a lot of stresses in my life all peak over the course of a couple of months. Lots of pressure and responsibility at work, the passing of a family member, long term medical diagnosis and a car accident. This triggered a prolonged period of low mood and a desire to escape.

My GP pointed me into the direction of Inclusion Thurrock where I self referred. I called them and left a message, which was quickly handled and I received a call back for an initial meeting and introduction to the service. I was invited to attend a 3 week course on the purpose of therapy and the objectives to get out of it. They were anonymous group sessions with multiple attendees, and whilst the sessions were useful for me to understand what I should expect to get out of therapy, it felt as though the hosts tried to cover everything, and so not everything was specific to me.

After the course completed I received a call from Claire who introduced herself and we discussed CBT and if it was right for me. We booked in a meeting to discuss further and start the CBT therapy.

Over the course of the next 6 months, Claire and I had a weekly video call where we discussed personal events of the past week, discussed the between session work that I had completed, as well as Claire challenging my thoughts and behaviors, making me really consider why I was feeling the way I did. I found this incredibly hard as it isn't something that comes at all natural to me.

Claire took the time to build an environment which fostered honesty and openness, as well as encouraging me to be able to understand my own emotions and thoughts. Claire has been completely impartial and never judging. I struggled with some concepts within CBT, through experimentation of different approaches we found the right approach that worked best for me.

Over the past 6 months the main stresses from my life are now at more of a distance, I have a much better understanding of what in my life is important to me and where I can dedicate my time to enjoy life as much as possible. Claire has taught me how to better identify those triggers that caused my initial depression, but more importantly given me the tools I need to deal with them and get my emotions and behaviors on track to avoid relapse.

I'm incredibly grateful for the time and effort that Claire has put in to support me in this journey.

The rest of the team at Inclusion Thurrock that I have spoken to over this time have also been fantastic, always pleasant to speak to and timely with their responses to any questions I've asked.

Thank you Claire Kilcoyne and the team at Inclusion Thurrock.