Our Services

Wakefield Talking Therapies is a free, confidential NHS service which provides psychological treatment for common mental health problems. These services might be informal chats, group therapy, or counselling, but all of them teach you different ways to manage common mental health problems, like anxiety, stress, or depression. You might be feeling down or finding it hard to cope with work or any other part of your life, remember that you are not alone and help is out there. Even if you’ve already been diagnosed with a mental health condition, you’ll still be able to come along and try them out. There are absolutely no expectations about how you approach these services. If you feel like asking questions or sharing some of your experiences, then go right ahead. If you just want to listen, then that’s all you need to do.

It is a National NHS England requirement to complete these for all users of our service at every session, so that we can monitor and support the delivery of quality and effective care in order to enable us to offer free therapy under the NHS. It helps us and you understand your mental health needs so that we can target our treatment interventions. It helps direct treatment and highlights any issues you may want to discuss. It is helpful to see your progress on a graph and reflects all the hard work you do when you complete therapy. We do not use these alone to make any decisions about treatment. We need to complete these at every session in order to continue with treatment and your therapist should discuss with you what these measures show us.

Fill them in based on how you have been feeling either in the last two weeks or since the last time you came for therapy. Don’t worry about getting them ‘right’ or over-think, just give your first response. We do not make any decisions about your treatment based purely on these. This data does not give a full view of someone’s issues, but can be a useful guide or marker. Don’t worry if your scores decrease for a while when you are in therapy. If you find the measures hard to understand or work out, ask your therapist to do them with you.

We offer lots of mental health support services, all completely free. These include; Low-Intensity CBT Therapy - this therapy is delivered by Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and teaches you how to ‘self-manage’ your difficulties by developing coping strategies and making changes to your lifestyle. You can access this therapy however you feel most comfortable - over the phone, face-to-face, or via video chat; High-Intensity Therapies – these therapies include several different services such as: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Counselling for Depression (CFD) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR); Therapy Groups and Workshops - Talking Therapy workshops provide useful techniques for you to better manage your mental health conditions. These can be delivered both face to face and via Microsoft Teams - each session lasts between 1-2 hours. Group sessions offer similar therapies to what you would experience in one-to-one sessions but allow for a much wider support structure. If you want to, you’ll have the opportunity to share your thoughts with, and learn from, people who have gone through very similar experiences. There’s no pressure to share if you’re not ready to. Along with Talking Therapies, there are a range of treatments for more specific issues, including: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Sleep Problems, Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder, Low Self-Esteem, Health Anxiety or Hypochondriasis, Social Anxiety or Social Phobia, Phobias, Postnatal Depression and Anxiety, Body Dysmorphia, Long-term Physical Health Conditions and Chronic Pain, and Complicated Grief.

If you are aged 16 years or older and are registered with a Wakefield or 5 towns GP surgery, you can access our services.

If you are feeling anxious, stressed, worried or low, then please contact us on 01924 234 860 or email by completing our contact form. If you aren’t sure, we will complete a screening assessment with you which will help us work together to decide if one of our options is right for you, or if it isn’t we can look at supporting you to access the right service. We do not offer emergency or urgent support however, so if you feel unable to keep yourself safe and wait for support please see our Emergency Support section. Those with severe and enduring mental health difficulties such as psychosis, bipolar and eating disorders should also seek advice from a GP before referring, as we are unable to support with these difficulties.

We are open 8.00am until 8.00pm Monday to Thursday, 8.00am to 4.00pm Friday and 9.00am to 4.00pm on Saturday and have some assessment appointments on Sundays. Depending on the therapy you receive we will be as flexible as possible to ensure minimum disruption to your commitments, however the more flexible you can be the quicker you may be seen as our evening and weekend appointments are very popular. We are happy to provide a confirmation of engagement letter for anyone who needs something to show their employer to allow them to attend appointments during the day.

We want to ensure you feel as comfortable as possible when engaging with our mental health support services. To facilitate this, we have a good mix of therapists from all demographics. However, if you have any preferences about who you would prefer to speak with, for example a request for a specific gender or if english isn’t your first language and you are in need of speaking with someone who can help translate, please let the clinician who takes your referral know and we will support this.

We try to see everyone as quickly as possible, however, there are waiting times for some of the support that we offer. The waiting times will vary dependent on the treatment that you are having; the ever changing demand on our service and how flexible you can be around your appointment times, locations and specific requests. We do, however, offer online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), group and workshop options which you can access as soon as you have been assessed. If you are currently waiting and would like an idea of how long it will be until you are seen, please ring the team on 01924 234860 or email [email protected] and we should be able to help with your query.

As we are a Primary Care service, we do require all potential clients to refer themselves. However, if they give us their consent to speak with you, you can support them making a referral. Whilst we do not accept referrals from friends or family members on behalf of a loved one without speaking to the individual first, we are happy to provide you with advice, support, and leaflets regarding encouraging your loved one to seek support themselves and how you can also look after your own wellbeing.

There are many treatment options available, and you’ll have help to decide which ones are right for you. If you are over 16 and registered with a Wakefield district GP, all you need to do is refer yourself, which can be done online, over the phone, or in person. Shortly after you’ve done this, you’ll receive a screening assessment that allows us to work out how best to support your individual needs. The screening normally takes around 30-40 minutes to complete and can be done over the phone or face-to-face. Once it’s finished, our clinicians will decide which therapies will be best for you. As part of your assessment you will be asked to complete a short set of questions about your mood and anxiety. We will repeat these at every session.

There may be times during therapy when you are distressed, and you feel therapy is not helping you. We encourage you to talk about these difficulties rather than ending therapy. This will give you an opportunity to understand and resolve your distress. If you do not feel comfortable with this, please contact us and ask to speak to a Team Leader who can discuss a change of therapist or therapy option if needed. It is important that you can connect with your therapist.

If you have a compliment or complaint about the services we provide, we welcome your feedback. For compliments, please tell your therapist or contact our frontline staff via telephone on 01924 234860 or email [email protected]. We will always pass these comments on to the relevant individuals involved in your care. Should you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from our staff, please let us know as soon as possible. You can speak to your therapist or contact our frontline staff via telephone on 01924 234860 or email [email protected]. If you wish to make a formal written complaint, please write to Turning Point Talking Therapies Wakefield, 57 Kirkgate, Wakefield, WF1 1HX. We take all complaints seriously and have a procedure that will ensure you are listened to. For further details please view our T&C's page.