The Helping Overcome Personal and Emotional Difficulties team works across Northumberland to support people aged 18 and over who experience difficulties related to trauma and/or managing strong emotions and relationships. This may include problems with:
The team is multidisciplinary and includes a consultant lead psychologist, psychological therapists, advanced nurse practitioners, an assistant psychologist, and administrative staff. We all recognise that engaging with a new service can be daunting and will strive to put you at ease throughout the therapy process. As a ‘co-developed and co-delivered’ service, we have been designed with valuable input from individuals with lived experience of the difficulties we support, and employ clinicians with lived experience of these difficulties in our team. We believe that this has helped to create a therapeutic environment that feels empowering, trustworthy and safe, in which our clinicians are passionate about working with you to explore your needs and support you in meeting your goals.
We offer a range of interventions to help you develop the skills to manage your difficulties and improve your well-being, including groups centred around managing emotions, relationships, and difficulties related to trauma and negative life experiences. Short-term one-to-one sessions with our therapists are also available to help you develop an understanding of how your life experiences may have contributed to current difficulties. We also deliver family and carer interventions to support loved ones of individuals accessing the team or other similar services.
We have chosen to deliver some of our interventions in groups as there is a strong evidence base suggesting that group therapy can build a community of support, and facilitate the sharing of useful strategies and skills. We understand that groups can cause anxiety for some people; we want you to feel as comfortable as possible and encourage you to speak to us with any questions or concerns so that we can best support you. Our groups usually include between 8-12 people and are facilitated by two members of our team.
We understand that relationships and communication are important to family and friends and that advice, group interventions or family/couple’s therapy can be helpful. We offer an initial ‘family and carers’ session (individually or in a group) to inform you of what we can offer and a further 6-week family/carer’s group to help you to understand your experiences and explore ways to help. We can also offer couples and family systemic therapy.
We have a central base in Blyth but offer appointments and group interventions in different community bases across Northumberland. We also offer online and telephone appointments.
If you feel that you may benefit from working with our team, please speak to the Primary Care Mental Health Worker (PMHCW) at your GP surgery, who can send a referral to us on your behalf. A referral can also be sent by professionals within Talking Matters Northumberland if you are involved with this service.
Find the location that this Service is offered at using Google Maps:
The team work across Northumberland to support people who experience personal and emotional difficulties. This leaflet contais information on what treatments the team offer to help people develop the skills to be able to manage these difficulties.
