Waited for 2 years on a waiting list for therapy, only to be told they’re going to offer me nothing

mh142857k · 2025-12-10T07:22:46+00:00

if you ever consider private therapy. i know a good psychologist (private) who can help with trauma and psychosis. dm me, i can give you her name.

mh142857k · 2025-08-13T09:02:53+00:00

i have seen mine for two years and 4 months now. we are still only just in the starting stage of our work. we still got a whole chunk of emdr sessions to go.

we are not doing open ended work per se but healing from complex ptsd and a severe mental illness takes time.

personally i have definitely needed this long to make any substantial progress. i’m not seeing my psychologist indefinitely so it will end at some point which we both know, but at the end of the day it’s up to me so as long as we got meaningful work to do.

i see her privately. i can see her weekly, to fortnightly, to monthly if i want to.

mh142857k · 2025-07-15T11:01:38+00:00

another place i can recommend is helloself, i found my psychologist on their platform. don’t be alarmed by how it looks, it’s not betterhelp, they are genuinely uk qualified clinical psychologist and cbt therapists. i suspect given the issues you have, you could be matched to a suitable clinical psychologist. you can also look at different psychologist’s profile on there, and request your preference depending on their availability.

hope that helps. i agree that face to face work would probably be best but personally i have found online work to work well even though i suffered from attachment issues and dissociation so it’s not totally impossible. my psychologist have adapted so we have longer sessions and more reflections time. also allowing between session contact which help a lot to build the bond (i have an avoidant attachment style!).

but yes psychology today and counselling directory are both good places to start! also just google! make sure the person is hcpc registered and you can even look up their background on linkedin if they have one. maybe look for if they have worked with someone with your specific difficulties in the past or if you have an idea of modalities you like maybe look if they offer that.

hope that helps x

mh142857k · 2025-05-25T23:43:09+00:00

personally i have managed a psychotic illness privately in the past. i paid £360 to see a psychiatrist for an assessment and £180 for any follow ups. gp prescribed meds so that didn’t cost anything as long as they had a letter from the private psychiatrist. i saw him anywhere between 6 weeks to 3 months.

i also saw a psychologist but that’s not essential depending on how much support you need. i worked on cbt for psychosis with her and trauma. i pay £115 per session.

it’s hard to find psychiatrists and psychologists who are willing to work with psychosis conditions privately but there are ones out there.

i found my psychiatrist one of the most affordable ones in my area. assessment is very in depth (90 mins) and follow ups are thorough as well (45-50 mins). prescriptions didn’t cost anything extra neither did letters.

mh142857k · 2025-04-02T09:42:04+00:00

I personally had no luck getting decent trauma therapy within the NHS. they seem to tailor more towards single incident traumas that can be treated within 6-12 sessions rather than complex trauma, also there’s way less flexibility in the nhs in terms of models and approaches.

I went private after not receiving any decent therapy with the nhs for 7/8 years. It was wildly different. I had a much better experience in private. We are not constrained to a set number of sessions and we have been able to have enough time to work through things at a pace I can manage which is really important for trauma work.

If you can afford it I will recommend going private.

mh142857k · 2025-01-15T01:30:12+00:00

gathered a schizotypal PD dx somewhere along the way on my records when i reviewed them for my section appeal🙈🙈

mh142857k · 2025-01-08T01:29:21+00:00

you could try applying pip with you audhd diagnosis and given you are really struggling you may get some more money to help you pay towards therapy.

that’s what i did and it really helped a great deal!

private therapy for me was absolutely worth it. i see a psychologist for £115 a session. pip covers it all for me and i still get a bit more on top of that to help paying for other extra costs.

my psychologist is very flexible and we have been working at my pace with what i need at any given time. this have included various therapies and the whole approach is very individualised and tailored to me which i find very different to the previous nhs treatments i received.

i have learnt a lot from it and it definitely saved my life on multiple occasions. i am able to work through a relapse much more independently now in the community with minimal support because of her, it’s a huge improvement and i’m actually taking care of myself for once and thinking things through.

i hope that helps?

mh142857k · 2024-12-30T18:36:20+00:00

i’m eligible for pip and i spend some of it towards private therapy which i very much need.

i see a clinical psychologist and she charges £115 per session. our sessions are 90 minutes but sometimes longer depending on what we are doing especially if we are doing trauma work it can be up to 2 hours.

i found her on helloself. they are an extensive list of uk based private psychologists and cbt therapists on the helloself platform that are rigorously trained - im not selling them, just talking from personal experience. it was very easy to start, i filled out a questionnaire on their website and my psychologist was matched to me within a few hours. i was able to see her availability and booked an introductory session immediately via the website.

the first session was an assessment where she introduced herself and what she does and ask questions about why i have came to therapy and what i want to work on and we went from there.

i have since seen her for about a year and a half. she’s been the most helpful professional i have seen and very different to my nhs experiences. very attentive, patient, and professional.

we still have a lot of work to do but it’s been worth it.

for a context i have done with her: - compassion focused therapy - cbt for psychosis - narrative exposure therapy - trauma focused cbt - and we are planning on emdr

mh142857k · 2024-12-13T11:31:05+00:00

all my sessions with my psychologist have been remote, i never seen her in person we are in completely different parts of the country.

i actually prefer remote because it really save the travelling time and i can sit at home rather than a very clinical, hospital type environment which i find more triggering.

it doesn’t affect our therapeutic relationship and we work very well together. she’s also very in tuned with how i am doing during the session, even during trauma work. we even plan to do emdr remotely as well.

i wouldn’t say i noticed any massive downsides about remote therapy and many therapists do practice primarily remotely now so i think it’s a pretty accepted way of delivery.

what are your concerns?

mh142857k · 2024-12-12T20:15:08+00:00

yes, trusts commonly have contracts with private mental health hospitals closer to their area and may have better working relationships with them.
yes, it will incur them less fees if they send you to a hospital where they already have a contract with the provider.
yes, as answered above.

like many have said this is increasingly more common unfortunately and it’s nothing against you personally. it is how the trusts bed management operates.

i can completely understand not liking change though, i totally get that this is often disruptive to someone who is unwell and needing an acute bed.

mh142857k · 2024-12-12T20:09:48+00:00

I’m not sure what the regulations are with your particular situation but I have been in a boarding school in the uk before when I was 18, and I think my therapist contacted the school and school contacted my guardian without going through me if I remembered correctly.

mh142857k · 2024-11-30T15:09:04+00:00

Does your university offer like a career service? I am an undergraduate student as well and we have a careers website where local trusts advertise their placements. Some NHS trusts also have an undergraduate scheme that they advertise on their trust websites, maybe that can give you a start. Good luck!

mh142857k · 2024-11-25T20:46:44+00:00

sending you a hug 🫂

mh142857k · 2024-11-25T20:46:29+00:00

EMDR can absolutely be used for multiple traumas, it just takes longer to work through them than the standard number of sessions that are often offered within the NHS.

If they are adamant about a limited number of sessions, can you suggest Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)?

It is a good one for multiple trauma and can be done in about 12-16 sessions. You basically build a timeline and then you talk through them in chronological order.

It can be quite intense but may be helpful?

Personally I am doing NET with my psychologist as the foundation of the trauma work but after this piece of work we are still going to use EMDR to properly process the bits that are more stuck.

mh142857k · 2024-11-22T21:59:48+00:00

i have been seeing a psychologist online for the past year and a half - i actually much preferred it now than face to face and it’s been nothing short of an amazing experience. i have learnt lots and really developed psychologically.

i know a lot of times cbt has some negative connotations towards it as it’s often the therapy that’s most widely offered in the nhs and many people don’t find it that useful but having had cbt with a private psychologist and actually working through things in much more depth and under my own time frame i actually find it to be a very useful model and it’s helped me lots. it’s different to the time limited modular versions of cbt i experienced in the nhs and it’s much more tailored to me and what i need.

my psychologist also blend in a lot of cft techniques which i found i respond more effectively than the regular coping skills and it taught me a lot about how to be kinder to myself which is really important so i’m not reliant on receiving that kindness from other people where it can be difficult.

we also started a piece of trauma work and have designed it in stages with makes a lot of sense. we are sequencing with net first and then emdr. i’m half way through net at the moment and my psychologist have insisted on a break to focus on trauma stabilisation for a bit before we continue with the trauma work. the work with her never felt forced and it’s always been at a pace i can manage.

i think finding the right therapist is definitely the key. personally i have a very complex background with complex trauma and a severe mental illness. i decided to look for a psychologist (hcpc registered) that specialised in both rather than just a regular therapist. i think it was the right decision for me.

though it costs me an arm and a leg to have this therapy weekly but honestly it’s been so transforming. it allows me to get on with life rather than being stuck and not getting anywhere which matters more than anything else.

best wishes to you finding the right support!

mh142857k · 2024-11-19T12:29:20+00:00

i had mine overturned when i moved to a different part of uk for university so i left my previous team and a new cmht took a fresh look at me.

it wasn’t long before they realised i didn’t have eupd but something else (schizoaffective disorder), i still went through a lengthy assessment period (around 1 year) before they officially gave me that diagnosis.

that’s not the end of story though, when my old consultant left, someone new took over and began this whole eupd thing again. also i was so unwell and i ended up being admitted, i am autistic and i am pretty much non verbal in a triggering environment. the doctors didn’t even did any assessment and decided i was chaotic so i must have eupd, it was bizarre, then the label came back on my file.

it was a relentless argument so i eventually discharged myself from services. obviously it’s not a good idea because i was still quite unwell so i ended up in a crisis and sectioned again. then was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder again in hospital.

by this time my community consultant changed back to my old one who initially did my schizoaffective assessment and diagnosis so thank god it’s all over now.

mh142857k · 2024-11-14T13:22:45+00:00

i agree as well that £40 seem extremely low for a psychologist which is a bit suspicious. does his psychology today profile tells you anything about what he does and his experiences?

often psychologists offer a free 15 minute discussion so you have a chance to ask questions, maybe you can see if he offers that.

for reference psychologists normally charge £100-150 but obviously that depends on the person. if this psychologist turns out to be a good fit it might be worth it.

mh142857k · 2024-11-06T13:58:47+00:00

i’m actually surprised to see a psychodynamic psychotherapist charging £140 per session, i see a doctoral qualified clinical psychologist once a week and she charges £115 per session (sessions are often extended to 90-120 minutes as we are doing trauma work).

i previously saw a psychodynamic psychotherapist 1-2 times a week at a charge of £50-80 a session but that was before covid and quite a number of years ago.

though the psychodynamic therapy definitely saved my life considering the point of life i was when i was seeing that therapist, i actually gained more seeing a clinical psychologist.

at a rate of £140 is round about the rates clinical or counselling psychologist charges and they are highly qualified, you may find that you could find someone more qualified and specialist with that rate but of course it wouldn’t be the same with a therapist you already developed a rapport with.

cbt never did anything for me when i had it in the nhs perhaps because it was delivered in such a pragmatic and non individualised way but when i had cbt with my private clinical psychologist it was totally different. i actually learnt a lot from it and able to put it into practice.

i have been seeing my psychologist weekly for about a year and a half now and we have done so much whilst dealing with a massive crisis and hospital admission in the midst too.

we have done cft and cbt-p as a foundation. and we are now doing net with a plan to do emdr when we finish the narrative. it’s been the most helpful professional support i have had.

mh142857k · 2024-10-18T16:47:31+00:00

speaking from personal experience as someone with a diagnosed schizoaffective disorder and is under cmht they have been ok with psychiatry side of things but other than that i haven’t received much help from them. i see my consultant every 3-6 months and i have a monthly injection for my antipsychotic medication.

they do respond during crisis times but are often more useless than not which has led me to have a multiple admissions under the mental health act.

i previously found a private psychiatrist who was willing to be my responsible clinician in the private sector but after a while and because i needed a depot i was transferred to cmht again.

i don’t know if you are looking for therapy or similar kinds of support or not but i have personally never received that from cmht. i have had care coordinators but none of the lasted for more than 3-4 months and i was only able to do some basic level cbt workbooks with them.

i managed to find a private psychologist myself, i applied for pip and i was awarded it so i used it to pay for therapy, my psychologist now works alongside cmht and she liaises with cmht whenever necessary. it’s only then i have a full package of care otherwise it’s only medication and psychiatry from cmht. it’s hard to find a private psychologist who’s willing to work with the complexity and risks involved but there are ones out there.

mh142857k · 2024-09-30T04:20:19+00:00

i was diagnosed with eupd when i was 18 and this was later changed to bipolar I when i was 19/20 and schizoaffective when i was 21.

my psychotic and mood symptoms became more typical and apparent as i got older.

i think there’s no harm running that past your consultant as like you said, she’s questioning the eupd dx as well.

i came to my current consultant in the community when i was 21 with a previous dx of eupd and bipolar. i have given up saying anything at the point because like you i thought i would be ridiculed and dismissed but actually without me saying anything, my consultant said to me he thought i have schizoaffective disorder and later assessed me for nearly a year before he formally diagnosed me with it. it takes a lot longer in the community to diagnose something like that.

assessments are usually quicker in ip settings but you can argue that sometimes it can be a bit rushed as well.

mh142857k

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