New Zeland

Comprehensive Care PHO Psychological Services

 

Comprehensive Care offers world class Mental Health support services to help the people in our community who are experiencing depression or anxiety as a result of life issues, including the diagnosis of a long-term medical condition.

 

Types of support available

 

Managing mood group

Free through a GP referral

This group therapy option for people experiencing mild-moderate anxiety or depression will help you develop skills in mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
This service is also available as a fee-paying service if you are connected with a private therapist.

 

Lifestyle options

Free, spaces are limited and waitlist applies

The Lifestyle Options programme offers up to four free sessions of brief intervention counselling for people with mild to moderate mental health issues. A doctor’s referral is needed for this service.

Support is offered in the following areas:
• Depression and anxiety
• Making healthy change
• Stress
• Adjusting to illness
• Communication issues
• Work relates stress
• Grief
• Sleep issues
• Physical abuse and violence (will refer to appropriate service)

 

 

Managing Mood Group

Learn new skills to manage painful emotions and difficult situations

Comprehensive Care’s psychological services offer a Managing Mood Group service that is focused on helping people learn and build skills to help manage their moods and distress tolerance. Our approach is about supporting people to develop ways of recognising unhelpful patterns and find new ways to approach life and problem solve.

Participants develop positive coping strategies that aim to help make everyday life a little easier, lessening the effects of the past, improving the present and making the future brighter.

Over the 13 week course, the best outcomes are achieved if people are able to attend all the sessions and build on their learning each week.

This Group has proven popular and as such there may be a waiting list.
This group is accessed free through a referral from your GP.

Managing Mood — a skills approach

We all have times in our lives when we become emotionally overwhelmed by situations. Although emotional pain is normal, sometimes dealing with emotions can be difficult. Not managing distressing emotions effectively can cause problems for ourselves, and for those around us.

When we are in emotional pain, whether it is anxiety, anger or despair, we often fall back on unhelpful habits and ways of coping. This group is about learning a new way of relating to painful emotions, as well as learning new coping skills to help us through difficult times.

Our Managing Mood Group focuses on skills that have been proven to be effective. These skills include Jon Kabat-Zinn’s ‘Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy’ and Padesky’s 5 Part Model. Some skills have been developed as part of Marsha Linehan’s ‘Dialectical Behaviour Therapy’ (DBT). Eric Karpman’s Drama Triangle is used as part of the interpersonal effectiveness section, and the work of Russ Harris is used to develop the section on Values and Goal Setting. We also place a large focus on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

These skills have been used successfully by many clients in New Zealand and overseas. The skills have also been found to be useful for anyone experiencing emotional distress — which is, of course, all of us.

 

The skills taught in this group are:

 

Mindfulness skills

Mindfulness skills which help us stay in the present moment and pay attention to what we choose to pay attention to.

Behaviours learned include:

  • How to manage each moment effectively
  • How to make the most of each day
  • Better decision making skills

 

Emotion regulation skills

Emotion regulation skills help us identify, understand, and work with our emotions.

Behaviours learned include:

  • Identifying feelings
  • Enhancing your ability to manage emotions
  • Managing anxiety and stress effectively

 

Distress tolerance skills

Distress tolerance skills offer a range of practical ways to survive a crisis or extremely painful emotions.

 

Interpersonal effectiveness skills

Cognitive and behavioural skills help us to think and act differently in difficult or distressing situations.

Learn how to:

  • Manage conflict effectively
  • Communicate effectively
  • Prioritise self-care
  • Set boundaries
  • Determine your values
  • Set goals

 

A very important focus is on practising these skills, including between sessions as best you can. This will involve some written information and record keeping.

We also focus on the development of your own Coping Plan. This will help you tailor what you learn to your individual preferences and life.

To get the most out of this course it is recommended you attend all 13 sessions of the group.

New Zeland