Dr. Andrea Bathie

Medical / Referral Service

This page is intended to give the medical practitioner (GP, Consultant etc.) or referring agency all the information necessary to make Private, Health Insurance or NHS referrals.

Stress Management Solutions (stress-solutions.net) is a service provider of workshops, audits and one-to-one stress management to company employees & the general public.

This is owned by Dr. Andrea Bathie, (full time Stress Management Consultant / Therapist for sixteen years), who accepts private referrals from the medical fraternity and has experience working from a busy GP surgery.

The Service

Problems / Conditions treated

The following are problems regularly presented and treated

The list is not exhaustive and, as some of these problems / symptoms can be caused by medical conditions, patients are advised to see their GP in the first instance, before being referred on.

Methodologies / Treatments used

An eclectic Solution Focused, Client Centred, Brief Therapy approach is used.
This means utilising a combination of Psychotherapy (CBT), NLP, Hypnotherapy & relaxation training, Brief therapy, Kinesiology, Gold (Psychotherapuetic Counselling) and specific Stress Management techniques.

As this is a mouthful, the therapy is generally referred to as 'Stress Management'.

What Happens

A specific course of treatment usually varies from three sessions for smoking cessation (Relax, Stop & Booster) to ten sessions for severe anxiety / depression or large weight loss etc.
Depending upon the type, sessions range from half to one hour in length. Although, each session is booked in the diary for 50 mins or one hours duration, depending upon practice location.

An Initial Consultation is given to obtain a history, identify the problems from the patients perspective, work out what the solutions will be, and estimate the number of sessions required. This also includes an outcome expectation on how they will know when the solutions are achieved. Without this step it's difficult to quantify success.

Depending upon the problems presented, sessions are initially weekly, but often stretch to fortnightly and even monthly in some instances. The Relaxation training / Hypnotherapy sessions are recorded live and given to the patient to practice with in between visits. Learning to relax and reinforce the positive suggestions.
Patients are also given various appropriate psychotherapy 'homework' tasks to complete in between visits.

Following the courses completion patients are advised to let the referring GP / consultant know of thier progress. Unfortunately, when the problem is no longer, sometimes there is less motivation to do this.

Contra-indications to therapy

Medication
Patients taking medication prescribed by thier GP (such as sleeping pills & anti-depressants) do not cause problems for the therapy, but some strong medications prescribed by Psychiatrists (such as major tranquillisers) could be a contra-indicator to hypnotherapy.

Motivation
It can sometimes seem difficult to know who is really motivated for change and who is not. For example, patients suffering from depression may not have the energy to seem motivated, but really do want change. The smoker may be fearful of gaining weight, but really wants to stop etc. All these types of patient are acceptable for treatment and should do well. However, there are other patients who are not really emotionally motivated for change. These are referred to as Negative Dominant Personalities (-DP's). They often enjoy moaning about what's wrong and do not really want to change. They can also exhibit emotional bullying of others (overt or covert put downs) as a way of temporarily making themselves feel better.
Although everyone has done this at some time, these patients make it a way of life and, as such, are not suitable for a solution focussed therapy.

Funding

With the exception of NHS funding, all fees are payable by the patient one session in advance and are non-refundable. A receipt is given for all fees. In addition, appointments missed or cancelled with less than forty-eight hours notice attracts the full session fee. Patients are made aware of this verbally and in writing. This reduces the number of 'Did Not Attend's' (DNA), which saves an hour each time.

Private Health Cover
For peace of mind all health insurance members are advised to check the limits of cover BEFORE commencing treatment.

Western Provident Association (WPA)

As a UKRC registered occupational health counsellor (United Kingdom Register of Counsellors is maintained by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy - BACP.) GP's & Consultants can refer WPA members directly.
Referral is made by GP's / Consultants filling in the WPA form (although not necessary, some also like to send a referral letter) and telling the patient to contact me for an appointment on Tel. 01342 318043.

BUPA (Provider number 30010113)

BUPA do things differently. Andrea is registered by BUPA as a service provider (number 30010113). This means that Consultants can refer directly and retain overall responsibility, but GP's have to refer to a consultant first, who then refers on to Andrea. There are friendly Consultant Psychiatrists who know Andrea's work and are happy to refer in this way. However, some patients do not want a record of them seeing a psychiatrist on the medical file and, to avoid the hassle factor, prefer to pay privately.
For information on which psychiatrists to refer to please E-mail below.

PPP

Unfortunately, PPP have changed thier mind regarding cover so frequently, that patients are advised to check the latest rulings.

Other Health Insurances

Most other health insurances will cover Stress Management Services (ie for anxiety, depression, severe phobias, pain management etc) when referred by a GP or Consultant. Please advise patients to check for themselves.

NHS (NHS Provider number 8EW59)

Previously, in the fundholding days, GP's could refer directly and quickly with thier own funding. The referring practice also gained by fewer ongoing prescription charges and patient visits, following course completion. Since the changes there have been fewer NHS referrals, with much longer decision times for successful applications. However, as things do change, GP's are advised to seek the latest advice on NHS funding.

Private Referrals
Referral is made by sending a referral letter with the patients phone number or telling the patient to contact me for an appointment on Tel. 01342 318043.

Many GP's prefer to have a stock of my cards and information leaflets to hand directly to patients.
If you are running low, please feel free to e-mail below and they will be posted to you.

For more detailed information on :-
Dr. Andrea Bathie click HERE
The effects of stress including symptoms click HERE
The physical & emotional symptoms only, click HERE

To provide your patients with the SOLUTION simply

or Telephone 01342 318043