FAQ's about The Thrive Programme^®

The Thrive Programme^® is a totally fresh approach to achieving lasting happiness, health and success. It is an evidence-based training programme that teaches you the skills and resources to overcome mental health issues and learn to thrive. It empowers you with the skills, insights and resources in order to take control of your life, bring out the very best of yourself and enjoy everything that you do.

Thriving people have a skill-set that makes them more robust, resilient,  and confident… they feel powerful and more in control of their lives… they are less prone to stress, anxiety or depression and they generally live longer and happier. Thriving people find it easier to resist social pressures, take more responsibility for their physical and mental health and live a more positive and active life.

The Thrive Programme® is completely different to all other mental health interventions, including counselling and CBT. It brings together scientific research and years of clinical experience in a unique and dynamic manner that is easily accessible to all. Although many other training courses and techniques do focus upon some similar concepts to Thrive, they don’t go into the same in-depth detail of the underlying fundamentals, nor integrate the knowledge in such an easy-to-apply and comprehensive manner. The Thrive Programme is not therapy or a treatment programme where something is ‘done to’ a person. It is all about empowering people to make the necessary changes for themselves.

The advantages of working through the programme with me, rather than independently are as follows:

• I can support and motivate you. I'll help to keep you motivated  and you'll have the confidence of knowing you have my support throughout the programme.

• Human engagement. My job is to teach, coach and guide you through the programme. My clients enjoy the interaction during our sessions because as well as being educational, sessions can be fun too and there are often laughs along the way.

• I can pace your progress, tailoring the programme to suit your own particular needs. I also help you pace your progression with  goals and tasks after each session.

• I can bring the book to life.  Working together, we'll get to know each other. The insight I get into your life means that I can help you apply the concepts from the programme to your own experiences, making it much more relatable.

• You can share your successes with me! My clients are often as excited about sharing their achievements with me as I am hearing about them - it's the best part of my job.

• I can answer any question you might have. I have been helping to Thrive since the programme was first created, so you won't have a question that I can't answer.

• I can steer you in the right direction if you go off-track. There will be challenges for every person who goes through the programme, and in fact, we grow more from being challenged than from when life runs smoothly. However, with my help they should seem like molehills rather than mountains!

A past client of mine, Jess, offered the following words when asked what she found were the benefits of working with me:

"Cara is extremely perceptive in her way of working. She noticed things about me (both physically and emotionally) that helped further my understanding of myself immensely. She was far from just a trained consultant who read off a script following the outline of the book. She brought extra to the sessions that proved very helpful.

Cara is a helpful mix of firm but kind.  She brought a “human explanation” to some aspects of the book.  I was able to be honest when I truly wasn’t quite understanding something first time round. I have always been a deep thinker and can overcomplicate things sometimes (!!) but Cara was able to answer all my questions and keep me on the right path of understanding.

Cara also brought a healthy dollop of honesty to the programme which helped it feel less about a professional teaching a client. Instead, it was one genuine knowledgeable woman passing on information to another. The fact our sense of humour is cut from the same cloth kept the sessions fun and has given me some extra personal coping mechanisms that I shall never forget."

The Thrive Programme® is a structured, easy to follow training programme that involves you really getting to understand:

• How YOU create fears and anxieties and symptoms – and how to free yourself of them.

• What makes you tick, what limiting beliefs you may have, and the specific ‘thinking styles’ you adopt.

• The 'Psychological Foundations' that dictate how you lead your life: your Self Esteem and Sense of Control.

• How much power you believe you have to make changes in your life,  how in control you feel. Learn how your desire for control means you avoid many situations...and how to regain that control.

• How your self-esteem can be changed in just two weeks, and the huge knock-on effect this will have upon you.

• How to banish Social Anxiety and feel confident around others.

Who is suitable for the Programme?

Anybody who is motivated to change and is capable of understanding and applying the programme will benefit from it.

There are different Thrive Programmes for different symptoms and prices also vary depending on levels of support required. Please contact Cara directly for more information on pricing.

6-7 sessions is all you need to learn to Thrive, and these are usually done over the course of 6-8 weeks.

The first two sessions are usually 75 minutes, thereafter they are generally an hour long.

Yes! Teaching children how to thrive is enormously beneficial for their social and mental health. We even have our ‘Bounce’ programme, working in education to help children thrive.

The Thrive Programme® will help your child with difficulties such as: school-related issues, mental health problems, anxiety; social problems such as low confidence; bed-wetting; nightmares; eating disorders; OCD and much more.

It’s also helpful if you want your child to simply learn how to thrive!

The most effective options are:

The Young Person’s manual is for those aged 10-18. For younger children, it is imperative the parent works through the adult Thrive Programme first, and then ‘teaches’ either that or the Young Person’s edition to their child. This is because the programme contains many concepts that need to be reinforced by a significant adult.

I personally do not work directly with children as I work with parents. However, there are many Thrive Programme Coaches who do work with children.

Most sessions are 1-2-1, except where I am working with children and parents. However, it is possible to deliver the Thrive Programme® to a group of people.

You need to engage in the sessions and be as open as you can. Make sure that you apply the knowledge you gain from the sessions to your everyday life as much as possible. You will be given a workbook to and support videos to accompany your sessions which will enhance your knowledge and insight. Occasionally, you will be set goals to achieve help you to create new positive beliefs and behaviour.

You need to work through the course consistently though; it’s not helpful working for a week, having a few weeks off, then picking it up again for a day or two

This is a very common concern that people express when they first contact me. They are sceptical about whether or not the programme will work for them, or if they’re capable of making positive long-term changes. It’s completely understandable though, especially given many have already tried other interventions with little success and may have been struggling with this for some time.

It can be easy to believe that your own issues and symptoms are more deep-rooted or complicated than other peoples. I've not met you yet, but I can assure you that it doesn't matter how long you've had your issues for, or how severe they may be, the Thrive Programme® can help you too.

I always encourage everyone to go onto my testimonials page and have a good listen to what past clients have said. These are from people who have worked with me - a first-hand account. I’d much rather people believed them than me!

Bear in mind that you will get out of the programme exactly what you put in to it. If you put in a a good amount of effort to apply what you learn, you will hugely benefit from the programme. This is not a sticking plaster or quick-fix approach. If you follow the programme diligently and put in effort, the results are very predictable: you will build great mental health, overcome your symptoms, and learn to thrive FOR LIFE.

You cannot pick individual elements and expect to get the same results as someone completing it the whole programme. As you work your way through the programme every week, there is a gradual build up of knowledge and insights, like putting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Everything you learn will give you essential insights into yourself and it's important that you understand all the components that make up who you are and how you respond. Knowledge is power so we want to avoid there being any gaps in your knowledge.

It's not advisable to, for a few reasons:

• There is nothing like this programme, so it’s very likely that any other intervention you are going through will conflict in some manner, lessening the positive affects.
• The programme involves consistent effort, so it’s important to devote full attention to it.
• It’s helpful to see cause and effect and you will want to know exactly what you are doing to achieve your positive results. Engaging in other interventions is likely to just muddy the water.

You might be concerned that the programme can seem a bit like a 'cure-all' approach at the expense of focusing on your own particular symptom or anxiety.

However, as surprising as it may seem, by learning to thrive you can completely overcome your specific issues. The main reason why people have unhelpful symptoms in the first place, for example, anxiety, panic attacks, sexual problems. depression, phobias, eating disorders, emetophobia, addictions, etc, is because they are not thriving...or certainly not in particular areas of their life.

Research shows that poor psychological processing, will likely lead to anxiety, stress, worrying or depression, and a host of poor mental health symptoms. It’s never really about the symptom, as the symptom is the end product of our unhelpful cognitive processes. Hence, by learning the skills to develop strong psychological foundations, coping skills and helpful thinking styles, symptoms will soon can soon be overcome.

Having said that, an appropriate amount of time will also be dedicated to helping you understand your particular symptom and you will be given all the tools you need to overcome it.

This unique programme has been developed by renowned psychotherapist, lecturer and author Rob Kelly and his uniquely insightful understanding of people, attained over his 30+ years in clinical practice. His experiences and research have led to an exceptional level of understanding of people’s problems, symptoms and anxieties.