Adults

Matthew’s suicide ideation was discussed and explored for seriousness and risk to himself and others.  Agreements were made about attending next appointments and what to do if the painful feelings and thoughts escalated.

Matthew attended 13 weekly sessions in which he learned about how depression, anxiety and bereavement work in the mind and body.  With the psychologists help he identified a tendency to ruminate (dwelling on unhelpful negative thoughts which seemed to be going around in loops in his head) and learned how to break this cycle and gain control over his attention.  A combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) was used. 

Matthew completed behavioural activation activities that research shows helps most people lower distress from depression.  He reintroduced small enjoyable activities and slowly experienced pleasure again.  These activities created a counterpoint and balance to the anxiety and low mood he had been feeling.  

Matthew was then helped to reconnect with his values and all of his roles in life which made up who he is.  This allowed Matthew to see he still had a meaningful part to play in his own and others’ life regardless of his current work status.   His goal to gain work was also supported: the psychologist and Matthew worked together to determine links between thoughts, behaviours and symptoms of anxiety before, during and after interviews that were getting in the way of his being confident, authentic and coping with any outcome.

While Matthew had wanted to work on overcoming the anger, loss and grief he felt about losing his brother, the initial agreement was to defer this and focus on his other concerns: bereavement can be (though not always) a larger, longer piece of therapeutic work.  Towards the end of therapy bereavement was raised again and briefly explored considering Matthew's new psychological flexibility about how to manage strong emotions. 

After his second session Matthew described how he was not thinking about suicide anywhere near as often and that coming to the sessions was helping.  Matthew explained he no longer felt as upset and angry about his brother’s death and had found a way of connecting with him despite his no longer being there in person. When therapy came to an end, Matthew had secured a new work contract, started running and shared that he was spending more time with his family again. 

Overall found this very helpful. It was exactly what I needed and Janine was brilliant – understanding and sensitive around discussing things that I initially found very difficult and embarrassing.