"Talking Therapy at Hartland Way Surgery"

I started Talking Therapy with the therapist I see after being given a leaflet by my GP on Talking Therapy in Croydon. I had a great deal of anxiety due to a family situation. My mother has dementia and she and my father live in another country and I can not be there physically to lend a hand. This situation and my partner being out of work currently, led me to have great anxiety which led to sleepless nights since October 2018. It led to feeling very low and depressed and feeling negative about myself.

I had no motivation, I felt I was letting everyone down, and could not see a way forward. I had lost the ability to come to terms with anything in my daily life. It was all rather overwhelming.

Once I started my talking therapy with the therapist I was guided by her to look at events differently. To see what I can fix at present and what I can not fix now to release for another time. I was advised to keep a weekly calendar of goals I wanted to achieve during the week. This approach was incredibly useful to me. I was able to set goals and meet them: for example, I signed up for exercise classes 3 times a week and attended all of them happily. This got me motivated. When the days were good I was able to do some gardening and this helped me with my sleep tremendously. I also started keeping a colouring book in which I coloured after dinner when I felt especially anxious, instead of watching TV. This activity helped with my sleeping quite a bit.

Basically, through the Talking Therapies, and especially my therapist's guidance, I was able to unblock. I was able to see what I could do daily to keep myself away from the thoughts that were bringing me such anxiety. I was able to remember how to keep negativity in check.

My therapist is a good listener. She gives wonderful advice in a simple clear manner. However, if I hadn't put all her advice into action, if had not pushed myself to follow her advice, I would have wasted her time and mine. Now I feel I'm in control again of my daily activities.

Thank you for offering this service. I highly recommend it to anyone who feels emotionally stuck.