"Take your life back and use talking therapy it really does work."

I visited my GP in a terrible state. I couldn't stop crying or worrying. I had suicidal thoughts and didn't know how I was going to cope following a significant trauma in my life.

Normally I was good at coping with stress and often there for others. My job even involved supporting others through trauma. Now it was me that needed support.

My GP referred me to Inclusion Matters Sefton as I didn't want to take medication at this point. I had a phone assessment and the staff were lovely and understanding. I immediately knew they wanted to help me.

I then had a face to face session with a professional. At this session I broke down and told her everything that had happened to me. It was difficult but felt good afterwards that I had got everything out. I then had five one to one sessions where my worker talked things through with me and gave me ideas for strategies to help me cope and manage my stress and anxiety. The sessions were calm and friendly and totally confidential. I felt like each week a weight was being lifted from my head.

The strategies have changed my life and I am now back at work following a 9 week period of absence. I am going out again and feel like I have a future ahead of me again. When I started the therapy, I wasn't seeing people, going out or going to work, I was mostly crying and suffering anxiety pains.

So take your life back and use talking therapy it really does work.