1. Boost Your Mood Week 4 Let’s Talk Course

2. Week 4 Feedback from weekly tasks CBT Model Introducing thought diaries Thinking styles Relaxation

3. Feedback from Weekly Tasks In small groups… How did you find the weekly tasks? Behavioural activation sheet and time management and assertiveness strategies Any comments or questions?

4. Thoughts Mood Behaviours Physical Reactions

5. Trigger Situation Walking through the town centre you notice a friend on the other side of the road. You wave to them but you get no response from your friend.

6. She must be angry with me. What have I done wrong? Confused, sad, upset Do not walk over to talk to her. Do not ring her. Sweaty palms, uneasy feeling in stomach Thoughts Mood Behaviours Physical Reactions

7. Small Group Exercise In small groups discuss: What alternative explanations can you think of why your friend did not respond to you waving to her? What consequences would this explanation have on your – mood – physical reactions – behaviour

8. Feedback to Large Group How was it for each of you to think of alternative explanations? How different were the consequences?

9. Thought diary monitoring STEP ONE… Each time you feel sad, depressed or irritable… Write down in the first column a brief description of the situation where the thought occurred. Then in the second column write down the Emotion (feeling). Third column write down the rating of the emotion (feeling) 1…100% Fourth column write down your thought.

10. Thought Diary 1 What happened (Trigger Situation) Emotion (one word) Emotion rating (1-100)Thoughts

11. Unhelpful Thinking Styles There are a number of well known unhelpful thinking styles, the most common ones are: Black-and-White Thinking Black-and-White Thinking Catastrophising Catastrophising Discounting the Positive Discounting the Positive Emotional Reasoning Emotional Reasoning Labelling Labelling Mental Filter Mental Filter Mind Reading Mind Reading Fortune Telling Fortune Telling Overgeneralisation Overgeneralisation Personalisation Personalisation “Should” and “must” “Should” and “must” statements statements

12. Unhelpful Thoughts Rather than buying in to your unhelpful thoughts mindfulness can help you work with your thoughts in a different way

13. An Introduction to Mindfulness “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally” (Jon Kabat-Zinn) Therefore, mindfulness is not a relaxation technique as such but a way of being in the moment, in the here and now Mindfulness has been proven to be an effective way of preventing relapse for patients after they recovered from an episode of experiencing low mood

14. How is that possible? Episode of low mood (learned negative way of thinking) Potential Relapse Low mood (negative way of thinking reactivated) MINDFULNESS Using awareness of all experience helps recognising negative thinking patterns early on NO RELAPSE NO MINDFULNESS No awareness of negative way of thinking RELAPSE

15. An Introduction to Mindfulness What we usually do (in the REACTING MODE) Doing what we’ve always done Mindfulness (in the NOTICING MODE) StrivingNon-Striving AvoidanceApproach Thoughts seen as reality Thoughts seen as merely thoughts Focus on the past/future Focus on the present Indirect experience Direct experience (reality) Automatic Intentional (choice)

16. M i n d f u l n e s s E x e r c i s e

17. Choose 1 routine activity, such as eating or showering, and notice what goes on in your mind whilst doing it, gently bring your focus back on the task

18. Week 4 Summary CBT Model Introducing thought diaries Thinking styles Relaxation

19. Weekly Tasks Review your SMART goals Continue practising behavioural activation Continue monitoring your thoughts Practise the mindfulness exercise