Supported interventions: 1 to 1 support

What is worry management?

It is a type of low intensity CBT which focuses on supporting young people to learn strategies to manage their worries.

What is worry?

Worry is when your brain keeps thinking about something that might go wrong. Worry can make us have ‘what if’ thoughts, like ‘what if I fall out with my friend’ or ‘what if I mess up?’

Worry might show up when you are feeling scared or nervous. You might worry about yourself, other people or trying something new. Worry can affect how our body feels, when we worry our hearts might beat faster or we might start to shake, it can even make you want to go to the toilet!

Worrying is normal, it is our bodies way of preparing us for danger and can help us solve problems. But sometimes worries grow, or we might worry about things that are not likely to happen. When worries get too big or stop us from enjoying activities we might benefit from support.

How will worry management help me?

Worry management will help you notice your worried thoughts, your emotions and the physical signals your body is sending when you worry. Your practitioner will support you to practice how to notice worries, use the ‘worry tree’, problem solve and learn coping strategies to help you with your worried feelings.

What will be expected from me?

For worry management to be helpful it will be important that you:

• Attend the sessions regularly
• Practice your new learnt skills at home
• Complete out of session tasks

What is behavioural activation?

Behavioural activation is a type of low intensity CBT that focuses on supporting young people to learn how to break the cycle of low mood.

When we’re feeling really sad and low in mood, it’s really common to stop doing the things that we enjoy and which make us feel good. We might stop playing games, going outside, talking to friends or doing hobbies.

But the less we do, the worse we feel. Behavioural activation helps us to identify the key areas of difficulty and find new activities and values to help break out of the cycle.

What is low mood?

• Feeling sad or tearful
• Not enjoying things you usually like

How will behavioural activation help me?

Behavioural activation helps us feel better by doing things that we enjoy and things that matter to us.

Behavioural activation helps us to:

1. notice which activities we’ve stopped doing and which activities mean something to us
2. choose small, helpful activities, like going for a walk, playing a game, talking to someone, or helping at home.
3. do them anyway, even if we don’t feel like it at first

By doing this, happy hormones are released in our brain which helps us to feel better.

Even if it’s hard at first, doing things that matter and spending time with people who are important to you helps your brain feel happier again.

Over time, the more we do, the better we feel.

What will be expected from me?

For behavioural activation to be helpful it will be important that you:

• attend the sessions regularly
• practice your new learnt skills at home
• complete out of session tasks

What is graded exposure?

It is a type of low intensity CBT that focuses on gradually introducing a young person to face their fears which in turn helps them overcome these fears.

When would graded exposure be helpful?

Graded exposure can be helpful if a young person is struggling with anxiety and avoiding situations because of this. This may be avoiding new things you have not done before or stopped doing because of feeling anxious. It may be that you still have to go to certain places but find it hard to do certain  tasks so avoid this such as putting your hand up in class as you may think ‘I’ll get the answer wrong and everyone will laugh’.

Graded exposure helps you to identify what are the things or places that you are avoiding and then identify a plan to start doing this in small steps so that the task or place doesn’t feel as scary as it previously did.

What will be expected from me?

For graded exposure to be helpful it will be important that you:

• attend the sessions regularly
• practice your new learnt skills at home
• complete out of session tasks

What is guided self-help?

Guided self-help for eating difficulties is a structured, evidence-based approach where a young person works through self-help materials with the support of a MindMate practitioner. It’s an early intervention for mild to moderate eating problems.

You will access 6 sessions with a trained practitioner spread over a period of 10-12 weeks.

What is obsessive compulsive disorder?

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is made up of obsessions and compulsions, but what does that mean?

Imagine you have a monster that is all about worries. That monster keeps telling you things that might be scary or strange. Some examples might be, ‘if you don’t check the door, something bad will happen,’ or ‘you have to keep your hands clean.’ These thoughts are called obsessions.

To help you feel better, you might then do things over and over, or in a certain order, like checking the door three times, or washing your hands lots and lots. These actions are called compulsions.

It’s important for you to know that these thoughts and actions are not your fault. OCD is like a trick your brain plays on you. With help from grown-ups, you can learn to mange it and feel better.

What is exposure response prevention (ERP)?

ERP is something that can help you feel better, but what is that?

If you think of OCD as a worry monster, then ERP is like a game you can play where you learn to be brave and not listen to the worry monster. There are three steps to this game,

1. Face your fears: You do something that feels a little bit scary, like touching a door handle if you’re worried it’s dirty.
2. Don’t do what the worry monster tells you: Instead of washing your hands straight away, wait and see what happens.
3. Learn that it’s okay: You find out that nothing bad did happen when you didn’t wash your hands straight away then your worry starts to go away. This is all about being super brave and not letting your worry monster boss you around.

How can ERP help me?

ERP can help you by showing how brave you can be and that you don’t have to listen to the worry monster. By being brave and not listening to the worry monster, it gets weaker and your worries start to go away. Over time, you learn that you don’t need to listen to the worry monster at all and you can do things without feeling scared.

What will be expected of me?

• Practice: With the help of grown-ups, you’ll practice facing your fears. You’ll need to do this lots to help with feeling better.
• Support: You’ll have someone with you to help you feel brave and support you
• Rewards: There might be times when you get a reward for being super brave and standing up to the worry monster
• Getting braver: you’ll get better at not letting the worry monster boss you around and you’ll be able to do things you find fun without feeling scared.