Your questions

You may have some questions about what is involved. We have tried to answer some of these here.

If your question isn’t answered here please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

When you are referred to us, we will normally follow the below procedure. There are circumstances where this does not apply and we will keep in contact with you every step of the way.

  1. Once we have received your information, we will check that our service seems suitable, and send you a follow-up questionnaire to complete your referral. Your referral is not compete without this follow-up information.
  2. Upon receipt of your completed referral, we will contact you to arrange a telephone appointment with a clinician. This usually takes place within 4-6 weeks.
  3. After the telephone appointment, we will carefully consider if one of the short term treatments available in our service is right for you at this time and make a plan with you. You may need further assessment to gain more information about your current difficulties and to clarify how therapy would work for you.
  4. Sometimes our service isn’t right for your needs. We will then put you in touch with other services in your area that can give you support.

We are available at many GP surgeries and other clinics around Lewisham. While a lot of our support is delivered by phone, we will try to accommodate you at the most convenient of our locations for you if you need to attend face-to-face.

No, we do not provide home visits. We can provide some support via phone or video call, but it may be important for you to attend in person for some treatments.

We work with adults 18 years and over, who are registered with a Lewisham GP.

Please note that individuals who live in Lewisham but are registered with a GP outside of the borough will be unable to access Lewisham Talking Therapies and will need to access services in their registered GP area.

If you are under 18, talk to your GP to find the right service for you.

We usually contact people by phone call, text message, or email. We sometimes send letters when needed. Please let us know on your referral form if you have any preferences about this.

Due to the high demand for our services the wait to start treatment can fluctuate between 1 and 6 months depending on the type of treatment you are waiting for. However, you will be contacted to arrange an appointment as soon as you reach the top of the waiting list. For longer waits we may also contact you prior to this to check that you still require the service.

Please be mindful that our appointments are Monday – Friday and mostly between 9am and 5pm. These waiting times are provided as a guide and are based on typical waits experienced by clients who are available during the day and have some flexibility on times and location.  We  do also offer some appointments outside of 9am-5pm

We are a busy yet flexible service and try to accommodate your needs as much as possible.

Our appointments are Monday – Friday and mostly between 9am – 5pm. We have a small number of appointments outside these times but they usually involve a longer waiting time.

Our online treatments can be accessed 24/7.

If you are unable to make your appointment, it is important that you contact the service as soon as possible on 0203 228 1350 or email us at slm-tr.iaptlewisham@nhs.net to cancel the appointment. A new appointment can then be made for you in line with the service’s attendance policy.

We have a number of therapists who speak languages other than English, who we can sometimes match you with. If we cannot do this, we will arrange to use an interpreter.

We also have a range of materials in a number of different languages.

Please let us know in advance if you have any mobility problems which could cause any difficulties in keeping your appointment. We will try to make arrangements to overcome them.

We believe that therapy is most effective when you focus on one course of treatment at a time. Given this, we only offer one type of therapy. If you are currently in therapy elsewhere, we would advise that you wait until this is completed and take some to consolidate your learning before considering a referral to our service.

Lewisham Talking Therapies can help support people with a number of difficulties, including the ones listed below:

  • Depression
  • Excessive worrying or anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • Sleep problems
  • Stress
  • Phobia
  • Low self-esteem
  • Obsessive compulsive disorder
  • Low mood due to a long term health condition for example diabetes or COPD
  • Experience of a traumatic event
  • Loss and grief
  • Feeling down due to unemployment or difficulties at work
  • Feeling down due to relationship problems or life changes
Young man, smiling.

We cannot take referrals from friends or relatives due to confidentiality. If you want to help someone access our service they can give permission for us to speak to you.

We also find therapy works best if the individual feels ready to seek help themselves. We suggest you direct your friend or relative to this website so they can see what’s available.

We keep all information confidential. We will usually keep your GP up to date on your care with us without sharing the details of what you discuss.

The only exception to confidentiality would be if we thought you were at risk of harming yourself or somebody else.

If you would like more information about our privacy and data protection policies it can be found here.

No. Unless you or someone else might be at risk of significant harm, we will not contact anyone about your care without your consent.

No. We are an NHS service. You will need to be registered with a Lewisham GP to access the service.

We would encourage you to speak to your clinician directly about any concerns that you may have, as they will very much want to hear about what your feelings are and try to deal with any problems. If you are not happy with the response from your clinician, you can ask to speak to the team leader.

We prefer to try to sort out any concerns or complaints informally wherever possible. However, if you put a complaint in writing, then it will be treated as a formal complaint.

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is a department of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust that works to resolve problems that clients may be having with services (and vice versa) and to provide an accessible source of information about the organisation and mental health care generally.

Contact PALS on freephone 0800 731 2864 (Option 2) or by email at pals@slam.nhs.uk.

A diagnosis is not needed to access our treatments and it is not something we offer in our service, as we do not have Psychiatrists within our team. We support mainly with symptom reduction and would advise that you make contact with your GP if you are seeking a diagnosis.

When you are referred to us, we will normally follow the below procedure. There are circumstances where this does not apply and we will keep in contact with you every step of the way.

  1. Once we have received your information, we will check that our service seems suitable, and send you a follow-up questionnaire to complete your referral. Your referral is not compete without this follow-up information.
  2. Upon receipt of your completed referral, we will contact you to arrange a telephone appointment with a clinician. This usually takes place within 4-6 weeks.
  3. After the telephone appointment, we will carefully consider if one of the short term treatments available in our service is right for you at this time and make a plan with you. You may need further assessment to gain more information about your current difficulties and to clarify how therapy would work for you.
  4. Sometimes our service isn’t right for your needs. We will then put you in touch with other services in your area that can give you support.

We are available at many GP surgeries and other clinics around Lewisham. While a lot of our support is delivered by phone, we will try to accommodate you at the most convenient of our locations for you if you need to attend face-to-face.

No, we do not provide home visits. We can provide some support via phone or video call, but it may be important for you to attend in person for some treatments.

We work with adults 18 years and over, who are registered with a Lewisham GP.

Please note that individuals who live in Lewisham but are registered with a GP outside of the borough will be unable to access Lewisham Talking Therapies and will need to access services in their registered GP area.

If you are under 18, talk to your GP to find the right service for you.

We usually contact people by phone call, text message, or email. We sometimes send letters when needed. Please let us know on your referral form if you have any preferences about this.

Due to the high demand for our services the wait to start treatment can fluctuate between 1 and 6 months depending on the type of treatment you are waiting for. However, you will be contacted to arrange an appointment as soon as you reach the top of the waiting list. For longer waits we may also contact you prior to this to check that you still require the service.

Please be mindful that our appointments are Monday – Friday and mostly between 9am and 5pm. These waiting times are provided as a guide and are based on typical waits experienced by clients who are available during the day and have some flexibility on times and location.  We  do also offer some appointments outside of 9am-5pm

We are a busy yet flexible service and try to accommodate your needs as much as possible.

Our appointments are Monday – Friday and mostly between 9am – 5pm. We have a small number of appointments outside these times but they usually involve a longer waiting time.

Our online treatments can be accessed 24/7.

If you are unable to make your appointment, it is important that you contact the service as soon as possible on 0203 228 1350 or email us at slm-tr.iaptlewisham@nhs.net to cancel the appointment. A new appointment can then be made for you in line with the service’s attendance policy.

We have a number of therapists who speak languages other than English, who we can sometimes match you with. If we cannot do this, we will arrange to use an interpreter.

We also have a range of materials in a number of different languages.

Please let us know in advance if you have any mobility problems which could cause any difficulties in keeping your appointment. We will try to make arrangements to overcome them.

We cannot take referrals from friends or relatives due to confidentiality. If you want to help someone access our service they can give permission for us to speak to you.

We also find therapy works best if the individual feels ready to seek help themselves. We suggest you direct your friend or relative to this website so they can see what’s available.

Is my treatment confidential?

No. Unless you or someone else might be at risk of significant harm, we will not contact anyone about your care without your consent.

No. We are an NHS service. You will need to be registered with a Lewisham GP to access the service.

We would encourage you to speak to your clinician directly about any concerns that you may have, as they will very much want to hear about what your feelings are and try to deal with any problems. If you are not happy with the response from your clinician, you can ask to speak to the team leader.

We prefer to try to sort out any concerns or complaints informally wherever possible. However, if you put a complaint in writing, then it will be treated as a formal complaint.

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is a department of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust that works to resolve problems that clients may be having with services (and vice versa) and to provide an accessible source of information about the organisation and mental health care generally.

Contact PALS on freephone 0800 731 2864 (Option 2) or by email at pals@slam.nhs.uk.

We believe that therapy is most effective when you focus on one course of treatment at a time. Given this, we only offer one type of therapy. If you are currently in therapy elsewhere, we would advise that you wait until this is completed and take some to consolidate your learning before considering a referral to our service.

A diagnosis is not needed to access our treatments and it is not something we offer in our service, as we do not have Psychiatrists within our team. We support mainly with symptom reduction and would advise that you make contact with your GP if you are seeking a diagnosis.

Lewisham Talking Therapies can help support people with a number of difficulties, including the ones listed below:

  • Depression
  • Excessive worrying or anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • Sleep problems
  • Stress
  • Phobia
  • Low self-esteem
  • Obsessive compulsive disorder
  • Low mood due to a long term health condition for example diabetes or COPD
  • Experience of a traumatic event
  • Loss and grief
  • Feeling down due to unemployment or difficulties at work
  • Feeling down due to relationship problems or life changes