Low mood may include a range of symptoms: feeling sad, frustrated, low in confidence or self-esteem, and not getting a sense of enjoyment out of life. It can feel difficult to concentrate at times and often there is a dip in energy levels which can lead to feeling more tired than usual.
Loss of interest in doing things is often experienced towards activities which may have felt easy to do or enjoyable previously, such as engage with hobbies or socialise.
A cycle can start to form: the worse you feel the less you do, the less you do the worse you feel.
We offer four different courses to help break the vicious cycle of low mood.
At assessment we will help you to identify which of the three courses would be the best for you depending on your experience and what is maintaining your low mood.
Lifting Mood and Motivation
This course aims to build understanding of the cycle that maintains low mood and focuses on a proactive, behavioural approach, introducing skills and techniques aimed at increasing motivation at a gradual pace.
It is an 8 week course, each session will run for 1 hour 30 minutes per week.
Catch, Challenge, Change
The course will help you to understand unhelpful thoughts, how our thoughts affect the way we feel, and learn how to begin to challenge them to successfully improve your mood.
It is an 8 week course, each session will run for 1 hour 30 minutes per week.
Move for Mood
This 6 week course is run as a partnership with The Recovery College. It focuses on the benefits that exercise can have on boosting low mood. We will explore the impact that low mood can have on us and consider various self-help strategies that we can put in place. Each session will involve some light to moderate physical activity (depending on individual ability) with the aim of establishinh healthy habits into your routine. Every session will end with the opportunity to enjoy a 'Cuppa and Connect' with trainers and fellow students.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
MBCT is particularly useful for those who have recently experienced their first bout of depression, or perhaps had several periods of depression, and wish to learn strategies to prevent depression returning. You do not need to be currently depressed to take part in the course or having any other treatment with us. This may be less suitable for some people with other difficulties beyond depression, this can be discussed when you have your assessment.
The course teaches specific mindfulness practices and education about depression. MBCT teaches skills to:
- feel more able to deal with difficult thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations that contribute to depression
- become more able to notice and allow distressing moods, thoughts, and sensations to come and go without having to battle with them
- make helpful choices about how you look after yourself
- feel calmer when facing life's challenges
It is an 8-week course, each session running 2 hours per week. You would need to be able to participate in a group online (need access to a laptop / tablet) with your camera turned on. The course also requires a committment to complete brief exercises as well as mindfulness practice (for 30 to 40 minutes a day) for the duration of the course.
Anxiety can be described as a feeling of fear or unease. Anxiety is something everyone experiences at times. Feeling anxious is a perfectly natural reaction to some situations. Anxiety can help us to focus or take extra care when needed, but if it gets too much or goes on for a while, it can affect our daily life.
Making Friends with Worry
GAD causes you to feel anxious about a wide range of issues, rather than one specific event. People who experience symptoms of GAD will feel anxious most days. As soon as one anxious thought or worry is resolved, another may appear about a different issue. This course will help you to learn about different types of worries and how to manage the these differently. This is a 6 session course which runs for 1 hour 30 minutes each session.
Challenging Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD is when someone experiences obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours which cause distress and start to impact on everyday life. Obsessive thoughts could be unpleasant thoughts, images or urges which repeatedly enter your mind (against your will) and leave you feeling anxious, uneasy, or dismayed. Compulsive behaviours refers to a repetitive action you carry out (whether something you physically do or something you do mentally) to relieve the unpleasant feelings the obsessive thought originally produced. The course is aims to build understanding of the cycle that maintains OCD and management of OCD symptoms by learning how to overcome OCD behaviours. It is a 7-week course, each session will run for 1.5 hours per week.
Taking Control, Steps to Managing Panic
Panic is a form of anxiety where you regularly have sudden attacks of panic or fear and experience what can be a range of intense physical symptoms. Everyone can experience feelings of panic from time to time, often a natural response to stressful or threatening situations. However, panic can become problematic when feelings of stress, anxiety or panic are occurring regularly at any time for no apparent reason. Panic can be a frightening experience, it can lead to avoidance of certain situations or activities because of fear it may cause further panic.
The course focuses on understanding the cycle that maintains panic, management of symptoms by challenging thoughts and testing things out. It is a 6-week course, each session will run for 1-hour per week.
Find Your Focus
Sometimes it can be hard to know where to start, what you want to change instead you recognise that you just want to feel better. But how does that look? Are you ready to change things when you already feel overwhelmed? This is when this course can really help to look at the things that may get in the way when we want to make changes, before exploring how to set goals that you can achieve that will make a difference to how you feel. This is a 3 week course, each session will be for 1 hour.
LGBTQ+ Wellbeing Group
The LGBTQ+ wellbeing group is an 8-week group course (2hrs per week) which teaches techniques to help manage symptoms of mild – moderate anxiety, low mood and stress. The course is suitable for somebody who identifies as a sexual minority such as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Asexual, pansexual or alloromatic, and currently experiencing depression, anxiety or panic.
The course is a mixture of online and face-to-face sessions, and is delivered by members of the LGBTQ+ community, with an affirmative approach recognising the lived experiences of those with LGBTQ identities.
Is there a cost?
No there is no cost, the course are delivered by Shropshire and Telford NHS Talking Therapies.
What does Guided Self-Help mean?
Most of our course are based on the guided self-help principle, helping you to learn ways to improve your own wellbeing. The courses will teach you techniques for you to then practice outside of the sessions.
Will there be an ice breaker?
No we don’t use ice breakers, you will be able to interact with the course and other group members if you want to but you will not be put on the spot
Is there any eligibility criteria?
The course are open to anyone over the age of 16 who are registered with a GP surgery in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and who are eligible to receive support from NHS Talking Therapies.
Is there remote and face to face options to attend the course?
Please speak to your assessor at your appointment about what options are currently available for the course you wish to attend.
What if I miss one of the sessions?
To get the most out of the courses ideally you would be able to attend every session, but we also recognise sometimes this isn’t possible. The courses each come with self help material to use alongside the course so you will be able to catch up on anything you could have missed and speak to the facilitators so they can support you.
Do I need a GP referral?
No you can self-refer by contacting 0300 123 6020, or using the Limbic Referral Assistant at the bottom right of this page.
Once you have self-referred you will receive an assessment appointment with one of our therapists. This is normally via the telephone, your assessor will be able to support you to identify which of our courses would be the best to help you.