Recently I went along to one of our Improving Access to Psychological
Therapies (IAPT) service’s stress management classes to see for myself what
they were about and see if I could change the way I think. After all, we have
pre-conceived ideas about things especially if it is something unknown. The
service said to me that people have misconceptions about the classes; that
people will expect you to speak as though you’re at an Alcoholics Anonymous
class i.e. ‘Hello my name is Andrew and I’m stressed’ – you don’t. And nor do you have get on a sofa and talk
about your childhood.
The session I went to took place during the evening at Leeds
college of music. On arriving, there was a discrete sign by the front desk and
a friendly receptionist directed me to the first floor room where the session
was held.
The start of the class felt like any training I have been to
in my professional life. The two facilitators, who led the session, greeted
people as they arrived, checked them in and passed on an evaluation form. There
was some nice gentle guitar music playing and jugs of water were available if
you wanted to grab a drink.
With the session being the sixth course in the series there
was a brief re-cap of what had been covered so far by Jake, one of the
facilitators. The main theme for this session was sleep, and how to get a
better night. There were lots of practical tips like not using laptops and
phones just before bed to help you drop off (something I maybe need to
remember). We were also given advice on
the things like the temperature of the bedroom and having blackout blinds. One
of the interesting tips that the other facilitator, Alice, gave was setting
aside worry time. This is the idea that if you are a worrier you stop yourself
from doing it all the time and set aside 30 minutes to reflect on your problems
and stop worry from dominating other things.
There are more details of who’d benefit from the courses and
how to access them online at LeedsIAPT.com. The courses run on a regular basis
so new ones are starting all the time.
Andrew Carver, Communications officer, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
No comments:
Post a Comment