"I was able to make so much progress with the social anxiety issues"

I think my only negative part in the process was that I had to wait several months for treatment to begin. I have to say that when treatment did start, I was extremely impressed with the support provided and particularly in Caroline's ability and professionalism. Having suffered with social anxiety for approximately 20 years and after attempting to deal with it through a variety of other interventions – including support via a different IAPT service – I had reached the point where I had little hope that I would ever be able to manage it effectively. When I started work with Caroline, I really wanted to focus on the behavioural aspects and felt that I needed little in the way of psycho-education. Caroline seemed to identify this immediately and helped me to put together an extremely helpful way to manage my anxiety that was tailored to me.

What made this possible was not just Caroline’s sound understanding of social anxiety and the mechanisms by which it operates, but her ability to listen, understand and provide me with a tailored set of helpful strategies for dealing with my anxiety.

I found the number of sessions extremely helpful because it felt like there was time to cover everything that I wanted and as a consequence, there was no sense of rushing or feeling that I had not been able to deal with anything. In fact, I was able to make so much progress with the social anxiety issues that we were able to cover other issues that related to my anxiety including work on self-esteem and mindfulness, which underpinned much of the anxiety.

I learnt a lot from speaking with Caroline and now realise that I had muddled certain things that were hindering my ability to get better and overcome social anxiety. Caroline however, was able to clarify things in a way that nobody had been able to previously in a way that was straightforward and helpful. I would just like to extend my thanks to Caroline for all of her help and for giving me hope that this is something that I can overcome.