All About Self Directed Therapy and How it Compares to Clinical Counselling

What is Self Directed Therapy?
Our self directed therapy course has been designed to help you overcome a wide range of mental health problems, especially if you prefer not to participate in face-to-face counselling.
This 10 module course has been written by applied psychologist Paul Lee BSc. MSc. and can be followed at home in your own time and at a pace that suits you.
What makes our self directed therapy course particularly effective is a combination of clinically proven Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approaches combined with the latest research and understandings drawn from:
- Attribution Theory.
- Social Psychological Theory.
- Personal Construct Theory and,
- Social Psychology.
This comprehensive course of therapy costs just £149.
You can view the the course website on Self Help CBT here.
What’s Included?
This self directed therapy course includes access to all 10 modules over a 6 month period which commences when you register to use the course for the first time.
The combination of contemporary scientific research and Paul’s clinical experience (13 years running the clinic) means the course is highly relevant and right up to date.
Online Platform
All of the modules in the self directed therapy course are accessed using our online platform which contains all the teaching materials, interactive quizzes and assessments.
In fact, it contains everything that you need to know to overcome your mental health problems without the physical presence of a therapist.
Module Contents
You can read a synopsis of the course contents below:
Module One - The Nature of Change in Psychotherapy
Module ONE addresses the very latest research and knowledge about the nature of personal change within the process of 'psychotherapy' and focuses on:
- What You Believe TODAY.
- Therapy Outcomes.
- Therapy Effectiveness.
- "Lambert's Pie".
- Agency.
- Expectations.
- Motivation and Effort.
Module Two - Beliefs, Values and Worldviews
Module TWO delves into our beliefs and how they can influence the way that we 'make sense' of the World around us and how we percieve what happens in that World, including:
- The Genesis of Beliefs.
- Challenging the Evidence of Our Beliefs.
- Inherited Versus Created Beliefs.
- The Unique Character of Our Own Worldviews.
- Events DON'T CAUSE Feelings!
- The Trap of Conformation Bias.
- The Underlying Coherence of Beliefs.
- The Three Key Sets of Beliefs that Modify Our Experiences.
Module Three - Autonomy and Control
Module THREE addresses one of the three primary belief 'systems' that can affect our perception of reality with a specific focus on what makes us 'autonomous' and how we understand the level of 'control' we have over our 'life trajectory'.
Sections include:
- The Locus of Control.
- Sub-domains within the Locus of Control.
- Social and Cultural Influences.
- The Past, Present and Future as Mental Constructions.
- The Desire for Control.
- Responsibility and Blame.
- Developing Agency.
Module Four - The Self and Identities
Module FOUR addresses our Self-Esteem, where it comes from and how it plays a role in the way that we feel. Sub-sectons of this module deal with:
- What is Self-Esteem?
- The Origins of Self-Esteem.
- Our 'Internal' Dialogue.
- True and False Identities.
- How to Boost Your Self-Esteem.
- Breaking the Rules and Ditching the Past.
- Processing Your Achievements.
- Developing Greater Agency.
Module Five - The Social Domain & Social Beliefs
Module FIVE considers the impact of our beliefs which are related to the 'social context' in which we exist and includes consideration of the following concepts:
- The Social World.
- The Social Construction of Mental Illness.
- The Process of Socialisation.
- Social Pressures.
- External Validation.
- Authority.
- Collusion and Significant 'Others'.
- Taking Emotional Responsibility.
- Developing Social Agency.
Module Six - Safety Behaviours and Thinking Traps
Module SIX discusses both Safety Behaviours (the strategies that we employ which are designed to keep us 'safe') as well as the common Thinking Traps that people can fall into when trying to cope with adversity in life.
The Module includes work on:
- Physiological and Psychological Safety Behaviours.
- Coping by Surrendering, Avoiding or Over-compensating.
- Thinking Traps and Unhelpful Thinking Styles.
- Catsatrophising.
- Over-generalising.
- Mind-Reading.
- Polarised Thinking.
- Emotional Reasoning.
- Blaming.
- Filtering and Magnifying.
- 'Fortune-Telling'.
- Labelling and Categorising.
- Personalisation.
The module also provides tools and techniques for dealing with each of these 'maladaptive' coping mechanisms.
Module Seven - Language and Linguistics
Module SEVEN delves into the nature of language and how the words that we use can have a profound impact on both how we feel as well as how we form perceptions about our experiences.
Sections include:
- Language as the 'Code' of Reality.
- Words Produce Feelings.
- Cognitive Fusion.
- Deletion, Generalisation and Distortion.
- Negative and Catastrophic Language.
- Mediated Language (Language in the Media).
- Medicalisation.
- Pathologisation.
Module Eight - Anxiety, Depression and Stress
Module EIGHT gets into the 'nitty gritty' of the THREE most common expressions of mental distress and how what you have learnt in the course so far can be applied to each of them.
The module discusses:
- The Effects of Time.
- Types of Danger
- Anxiety
- The Biology of Anxiety
- The Role of Perception
- Appropriate Anxiety
- Anticipatory Anxiety
- Likelihood, Probability & Consequences
- Tackling Anxiety
- Depression
- Diagnosis & Medication
- Maintaining Factors
- Dealing with Depression
- Boost Self-Esteem
- Become More Internal
- Take Responsibility for Your Emotions
- Quit Ruminating
- Manage Sleep
- Activity Monitoring & Scheduling
- Understanding Stress
- Threat Perception & Power
- Workplace Stress
- Coping & Resilience
Module Nine - More Tools for Making Changes
Module NINE provides more tools and techniques that you can use to tackle your specific problems, including:
- The Fundamental of Making Changes.
- What you Should Be Doing Already.
- Carrying-Out Behavioural Experiments.
- Tip for Successful Experiments.
- The Downward Arrow Process.
- Objective Inversion.
- Controlling the Controllable.
- Stepping Outside fo Your Comfort Zone.
Module Ten - Consolidating Your Improvements
Module TEN is designed to help you to sustain any of the changes that you have made. It provides tools, tips and advice so that you can continue to make personal improvements as an ongoing project including:
- Re-assessing Your Core Beliefs.
- Sustaining Changes.
- It's All About the Journey, NOT the Destination.
- Towards What You Want OR Away From What You Don't Want?
- 'Needs' Versus 'Wants'.
- Goal Setting