You can find information about the content of our courses in Kennet and North Wiltshire on this page.
If we have course dates forthcoming there will be a link at the end of the course description for information, dates and venues. If there is no link please check again soon as we are arranging more courses all the time.
This course is for people who wish to learn about ways to handle their angry feelings. It aims to teach various ways of dealing and coping with anger. It will also teach some relaxation exercises.
Information, dates and venues
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Beating the Blues
Self help computer programme for anxiety and depression.
If you are stressed, feeling down or unable to cope, beating the blues may help you to feel better. Depression and anxiety are extremely common and cognitive behavioural therapy has been used successfully to treat them for many years. Beating the Blues is an easy to use self help computer programme using cognitive behavioural therapy, running over eight consecutvie 50 minute sessions.
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Bereavement Support Group
6 week course
This group is for people who have been bereaved and are finding it difficult to grieve. Your loss may be recent, or current events in your life may have triggered unresolved grief from a previous bereavement. Many people find it helpful to talk and find comfort from others who are going through similar experiences. However, people can decide for themselves how much they wish to take part. This course looks at what confidence is and offers ideas and opportunities to practice skills which will help to develop it.
Feeling misunderstood and being misunderstood is a common experience for all of us. This course looks at how and why this can happen and what we can do to communicate better with each other. The course will include practicing a range of communication skills - such as accurate listening, negotiation and assertiveness - which are helpful in any relationship.
The sessions build up on each other, so it is important that people try to attend all sessions. Active participation from group members will be welcomed and encouraged though no pressure will be put on anyone to say or do any more than they would wish to.
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Overcoming your fears and phobias
The charity Triumph Over Phobia (TOP UK) runs a national network of self-help groups to help people with phobia or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to overcome their problems using graded self-exposure. This means learning how to face up to your fears in a very gradual and structured way so that eventually the anxiety should decrease.
They have a branch in Swindon and are setting one up in Chippenham. More information will be on this website as soon as the details are confirmed.
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Coping with Long Term Pain
Five week course
This is a 5 week course for people experiencing long term Pain. The course aims to help you understand long term pain, including the things that make it worse, and to learn some techniques to cope with it.
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Coping with Chronic Fatigue
Four week course
This is a 4 week course for people experiencing Chronic Fatigue. The course aims to help you understand chronic fatigue, including the things that make it worse, and to learn some techniques to cope with it.
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Panic
Three week course
A course of three group sessions will be aimed at putting a stop to the commonly experienced ‘panic attack’. Specifically, the course will involve looking at the physical warning signals of panic, ways of stopping the panic cycle using a variety of techniques such as breathing and relaxation.
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Post-natal Anxiety and Depression
Six week course
The aim of this course is to help mothers understand more about post-natal anxiety and depression and to provide you with parenting skills and other coping techniques. We collaborate with health visitors to aim to teach you ways of coping with anxiety and low mood and how to reduce these feelings. We do acknowledge how very hard this can be.
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Relaxation and mindfulness
Four week course or one half-day saturday course
The relaxation course will introduce and develop breathing and relaxation techniques through practice and discussion. The aim of the course is to provide a time and space for people to come along and try out different relaxation techniques which will help to reduce stress and promote a sense of calm and well-being.
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Self esteem
Six week course
This course helps you to understand the kinds of things (ways of thinking, reacting, critical beliefs about yourself etc) that maintain low self-esteem and teaches you ways to change this cycle. The course will introduce ideas about how confidence develops and will practice methods and strategies for building it up and maintaining it. We will also look at and practice ways of handling difficult situations. On this course the facilitators do most of the talking and teaching, but people are encouraged to try things out and to contribute to discussion.
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Overcoming Sleep Difficulties
Five week course
This is a 5 week course for people experiencing sleep difficulties (not sleeping enough/disrupted sleep/early morning waking), who are also experiencing any other condition where physical or emotional in nature. The course aims to help you understand your sleep difficulties, and provide you with techniques which can help to cope with poor sleep. This course is not recommended for individuals with Sleep Apnea, or for individuals who feel they sleep too much.
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Stress and Mood Management
Five week course + occasional one day Saturday courses
The aim of this course is to teach you about ways of coping with stressful situations and how to reduce the feelings of anxiety, depression and anger that problems in life produce. It also aims to reduce stress-related illness. The course will teach relaxation and ways of controlling unhelpful thoughts as well as encouraging a holistic approach to healthy lifestyles. This course is very general and so can be helpful to a lot of people. It is often recommended that you attend this course (if appropriate) before any others.
Explanation of the fight/flight response, an important part of all anxiety problems; introduction to relaxation techniques; discussion and information on balanced lifestyles; overview of the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour; consideration of ways in which problems are maintained and ideas on breaking out of vicious cycles. The course is particularly relevant for people with anxiety based problems, including health worries, but also of relevance to people suffering from depression, anger and difficult life events.
The aim of this five session course is to help you to understand and cope with your worries and anxious thoughts. This course would be best suited to you if you find yourself worrying a lot of the time and it is effecting your life. The course will involve looking at how our worries are maintained and ways of changing these cycles. It will give different techniques of what we can do with our worries, managing social situations and introduce some relaxation and mindfulness techniques.