Welcome

No one seems to be writing about being a PWP. I might have missed something but whenever I Google ‘Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner’ or ‘Low Intensity Therapist’ I get a load of official hits – some blogs written for NHS England or Universities. These are always good blogs, not inaccurate or misleading; very official though. There are hits from the ClinPsy forums too – people who want to work in IAPT on their way to a doctorate. Don’t get me started. People who have pursued Low Intensity psychological interventions (LI) as their career and who are excited about it as a distinct modality don’t seem to have an independent voice in internet land.

I’ve been a Low Intensity practitioner for more than a decade both in IAPT and in a service that preceded IAPT. I’m obsessed with LI, proud of it, excited about how it’s developing and the opportunities it’s creating for people who might not have had many chances to help and lead otherwise. I’m angry about a lot of things too, fed up, sometimes burnt out, and always impatient for change. So I thought I’d write about it and create a space where people who want to find out a bit more about IAPT and low intensity work can swap some (moderated!) comments.

I’m going to keep this blog anonymous so that I don’t start to filter myself. I haven’t got an agenda beyond telling the story of my work experience. Part of the purpose of this is to manage my own wellbeing; I need a space to make sense of this work and the effect that it’s had on me. I hope this perspective will be helpful for people who use IAPT services, people who refer to IAPT, people who work in IAPT, people who are thinking about working in IAPT, and people who work alongside IAPT.

If you’ve ever been to an IAPT service this blog might help you to make more sense of the 20 something who made you fill in a load of questionnaires. If you work in IAPT, in any of the professions, I hope you’ll find shared experiences, the funny side of what we do and a bit of community. If you’re thinking about working in IAPT then I hope I don’t scare you off. It’s genuinely brilliant. Some of it. The other bits are changing slowly.

I can probably manage a blog a week, we’ll see how it goes. If you like this idea and want to contribute something then please get in touch with me. This blog has got its own twitter account: @Notapwpguru. If I ever figure out how to use Twitter I’ll let you know. As you read please bear in mind that I am not a guru; it’s in the blog title. I don’t know everything, I’m regularly wrong and this is just one very biased perspective on the whole thing. Enjoy!