Life-Skills Programme

LIFE SKILLS PROGRAMME

The Aware Life Skills Programme (LSP) has been developed by Dr. Chris Williams. Dr. Williams is a Professor of Psychiatry and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the University of Glasgow and is a recognised expert in the area

CBT focuses on thinking and behaviour. When a person is dealing with very stressful issues or beginning to develop symptoms of depression they are more vulnerable to filtering out positive experiences and focusing on unhelpful thoughts. This negative bias informs a person’s behaviour and can start to influence their decision making process at school, at home, or in relationships

The principles of CBT illustrate interesting examples of common ‘ways we think’ and explores if ‘how we are thinking’ is helpful or not and if there is sufficient evidence to support our thoughts. It questions if we have, over time, mistaken our ‘thoughts’ for fact. This approach challenges habitual behaviour influenced by negative thoughts. The CBT approach can help us to make small, practical changes in areas of our life that we find difficult. Taking these small actions can improve our mood and also reduce some of the symptoms associated with depression, stress or anxiety.

There is excellent evidence that CBT works for the treatment of anxiety and mild to moderate depression and many previous participants of AWARE’s Life Skills course have found it to be hugely beneficial to them.

The Life Skills Programme is not individual therapy: it is a group programme which allows participants to learn some of the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and apply them to their own life.

Some of our students with Dee Lynch, from Aware

Dee Lynch presenting to the group

Some of the ideas behind the Lifeskills Programme