Hi, my name is Shaesta Saleem, and I am a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist (CBT) working in the NHS Talking Therapies Service, based in the Burnley/Pennine team.
Can you tell us a bit about the service you work in?
NHS Talking Therapies (formerly Minds Matter) provides psychological support to people aged 16 and over experiencing mild to moderate mental health conditions, delivered by trained NHS professionals such as counsellors, CBT and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapists, and psychological wellbeing practitioners. We help individuals manage various anxiety disorders like social anxiety, excessive worry, phobias, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression, offering therapy online, over the phone, and face to face. People can self refer online or be referred by professionals.
What does an average day look like for you as a CBT therapist?
I start my day with grounding or mindfulness exercises before reviewing my cases and resources. I typically see four to five clients daily, and my face to face clinic is at the Chai Centre in Burnley, a vibrant multi agency community hub where I enjoy working. My week includes attending meetings, supervision, and working on my vision to make psychotherapies accessible to people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
As a CBT therapist I work with clients who are experiencing anxiety and depression. The initial assessment can take up to two sessions which helps capture the clients psychological problems in context of past and current life events. Client are offered up to 12 sessions or more which can be face to face or remote. Accessing therapy for the first time is often anxiety inducing so it is important for me to work on finding shared common grounds for rapport and trust. CBT therapists specialise in treating anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), social anxiety, and PTSD.
In your experience what impact can CBT therapists have on delivering high quality health care?
CBT is an interactive therapy, with a focus on applying techniques like grounding, thought challenging and worry management to improve wellbeing. Working collaboratively with clients I help them to identify unhelpful thought patterns, negative bias and core beliefs and use my clinical skills and knowledge to offer alternative, more helpful ways of thinking to reduce anxiety and depression. Seeking therapy requires courage because it is about addressing vulnerabilities which need to be validated throughout. I feel humbled working with all my clients who show incredible strength working towards better mental health.
In addition to my role, I have spent the last 18 months working on a vision to increase awareness, trust, and access to mental health services within BAME communities, supported by LSCft. Mental health inequalities have been highlighted for decades, and now is the time for actionable change. So far, my colleague Hina Ayub and I have delivered 13 workshops, reaching over 440 people in Burnley and Pendle. We also shared our outreach model with the Blackburn with Darwen team, extending our reach to 650 people from diverse communities. Our psychoeducation sessions focus on depression and anxiety, delivered in English, Urdu, Punjabi, and Bengali at local community centres, nurseries, mosques, and events.
In April 2024, myself and my colleague Hina Ayub were invited to speak at the LSCft psychological professionals annual conference to over 100 esteemed colleagues on the subject of adopting holistic approach to improve physical and mental health from an ethnically diverse perspective. We were inundated with positive feedback by the audience on championing inclusive practice and health equality.
Our success has led to the BAME champions winning the 2023 Shine Awards in the compassion, inclusion, and respect category, and I was nominated for the People’s Choice Award. To further our vision, we are working on a 16 week project with quality improvement to establish the first stakeholder group focused on improving the experience and outcomes for diverse ethnic communities. Our work is helping build stronger relationships with stakeholders and communities and dispel myths, improving mental wellbeing for populations that have long faced inequalities.
