Community Services - Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust 2022-05-07 Person 2 5 0

I was told it would be intensive therapy but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. I was honest about how nervous I was about taking phonecalls and just speaking to a therapist in general and it was very difficult for me to do these calls due to extreme anxiety. I also had to cancel a few times due to my physical health problems. I ended up doing 4 sessions and then she suggested that maybe this wasn't working for me and I should maybe try again once my physical health was more stable and I had sorted out my antidepressant dosage with my doctor. This really doesn't help me as I have I can't see my physical health changing at all any time soon. It was suggested that maybe when I'm more sorted I could try again and we could go more in depth rather than just "chit chatting" for an hour. After already saying how bad my anxiety was and that I had been very down lately, this felt like a bit of a slap in the face to be honest and just left me feeling embarrassed. She did say she wasn't forcing me to make a decision but she didn't want to waste my time and that I should think about what I want to do. I didn't feel I could talk to her again after that so I cancelled and probably won't be doing it again any time soon. It's very disappointing because agreeing to therapy was a massive step for me, that I've been putting off for years. Just to be told I'm not ready for therapy because my health is all over the place. She wasn't horrible in any way but I did feel she was trying to influence my decision by kind of listing the negatives and reasons why this might not work.

Don't tell people with long standing health conditions to come back "once their health is more stable". Like I say my health isn't going to change any time soon so does that mean I should write therapy off because I'm not well enough? It's a terrible thing to say to someone who is already struggling so much.