Speak to someone

There are also lots of charities offering support- try searching here:

• The Help Hub are offering free 20 minute sessions with a therapist to anyone struggling with the impact of self-isolation.
  
  
• Helplines - The NHS have made this list of well known mental health helplines.
  
  
• Be More You run open wellebing workshops over Zoom.
  
  
• IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies) - you can self-refer to your local IAPT here (or be referred through consultation with your GP).
  
  
• A registered therapist - if for whatever reason you cannot access help through the NHS or other resources, and have the means to pay, you can find registered therapists here

If you feel unsafe, whether due to physical or mental health difficulties, you should call 999 immediately.

Digital Self-Help Programmes

If you find it easier working in an online interactive media, you might find the resources below useful!

• Sleepio is an online sleep improvement programme based on CBT for insomnia. Sleepio is clinically proven and NHS endorsed.
  
  
• The ACT Companion is an app developed by Russ Harris and his team (who developed ACT, or acceptance and commitment therapy) made free to people during this difficult time.
  

• Feeling Good: Positive Mindset is an app with 12 audio-based relaxation and visualisation exercises to help you to relax and switch mindsets. Access content free during the pandemic using username: coboost and password: positive

• The Recovery College has created this free course on coping with the pandemic.
  
  
• Stress Control are offering a free course to help you learn more about stress, why it happens and how to manage it.
  
  
• Breathworks are also offering a free course on 'Mindful Selfcare for Troubling Times'.

• Working from home- this interactive guide by Cotswold Co talks you through how to survive the stresses and distractions of working from home.

Meditation

Meditation can help us to recentre, focus on the present and what is in our control, and feel calmer and more content as a result. The following links take you to websites or apps where you can listen to free meditations:

• Free Weekly Mindfulness Seminars from the Oxford Mindfulness Centre.
  
  
• Innerspace offers quick meditations that fit in with your workday every day.
  
  
• Stop, Breathe and Think (free online meditations - app available).
  
  
• Headspace (free meditations at bottom of page).
  
  
• Self Compassion Exercises (by Kristin Neff from The Self Compassion Org).
  
  
• Balanced Minds also create self-compassion guided meditations.
  
  
• Take a deep breath has more meditations, including an introduction to meditation track for beginners.

• Learn Relaxation Techniques have produced this wonderful guide teaching people how to practice mindfulness for themselves. Perfect if the guided audio tracks just aren't for you!

PDF guides

• A guide to living with Worry and Anxiety amidst Global Uncertainty, from the self-help and psychology resources website PsychologyTools, available in several languages.
  
  
• FACE COVID- A guide by Russ Harris on managing our mental health during the pandemic based on principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
  
  
• Be More You Emotional Wellbeing- 5 exercises you can do to improve your emotional wellbeing.
  
  
• Emotional Reactions - a guide by the London Trauma Service to help t predict and understand our emotional reactions.
  
  

• 10 Self-Compassion Practices to Help You Cope with the Coronavirus Pandemic - by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer (key names in the topic of self-compassion).
  
  

• This guide on managing mental health during coronavirus has been put together by people already experiencing pervasive and problematic anxiety or low mood, with some tips that have helped them in the past.

Supporting Children

It can be difficult supporting children with their worries on top of managing your own. Check out these resources which might help.

• Advice for Parents and Carers by the University of Oxford and the University of Reading, with ideas to support children and young people with their worries.
  
  
• The British Psychological Society has put out this guidance on talking to children.
  
  
• My Name Is Coronavirus is an interactive picture booklet that explains to young children what coronavirus is and what they need to do about it, without making the situation seem to scary.
  
  
• Coronavirus Social Story is a similar resource to that above with a bit more of a focus on how the virus impacts on children's lives (e.g. no school).
  
  
• Think Ninja is an app developed by child psychologists in the NHS along with Healios. It has been updated with Covid specific content to support young people with anxiety and stress during the pandemic.

• This course developed by the University of Reading helps young people, and those caring for them, to work through the ways the pandemic is likely to be affecting their mental health right now.

Online Exercise and Yoga

• Soul Movement - free meditation, yoga or capoeira fitness the during the coronavirus period.
  
  
• Project Awesome - offer free yoga, indoor HIIT, and 'runnercise' classes at 7am three time a week over Zoom.
  
  
• Katie-Inez Kieran offers yoga from 4-5pm on Mondays and 10-11am on Wednesdays over Zoom. Use this link for all classes. All sessions are on a 'pay (£5) if you are able' basis so turn up and if you are paying you can get payment details at the class.
  
  
• This facebook group has daily free HIIT and yoga classes over Zoom that anyone can join.