The personal experiences and views of waiting for cognitive therapy in the NHS: A qualitative account

Abstract

This qualitative study employs Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to illustrate the experiences and views of waiting for therapy of four participants who showed reliable and clinically significant improvement according to CORE-OM between their assessment interview and the start of their cognitive therapy in a primary care NHS psychology service – a service with a wait of between 45 and 90 days. The participants report mixed views and experiences of waiting for therapy despite the improvement suggested by the CORE-OM. In addition, two master themes that are relevant to the experience of waiting for therapy are discussed: Social Support and Mechanisms of Relief. While some researchers argue that the improved scores observed over the duration of a waiting period are nothing more than the result of a testing artefact, the experiences reported in this study suggest that real changes do take place between the assessment and start of therapy that may be accurately reflected by changes to people’s psychometric scores.