Programs

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a practical, short term, and skills-based psychological treatment for a variety of mental health difficulties and concerns, like anxiety and depression.

CBT helps people identify and change unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaviour, which tend to maintain or worsen symptoms, by teaching them more helpful strategies for tackling life’s challenges.

CBT can be accessed face-to-face through a trained mental health professional (like a psychologist) or online via a structured online program that teaches CBT skills.

CBT is one of the leading psychological treatments for anxiety and depression, because learning and applying CBT skills often leads to significant reduction in symptoms and improvements in mental health.

All of our online programs are based on this type of therapy and are tested in rigorous clinical trials to confirm that they too lead to measurable improvements in wellbeing.

Our research shows that 80% of people who’ve completed one of our treatment programs have benefited substantially, with 50% no longer being troubled by their symptoms.

As of December 2021, more than 100,000 individuals have enrolled in a THIS WAY UP program and more than 20,000 clinicians have prescribed a THIS WAY UP program to their patients. Many people have written to tell us about the ways online treatment has positively helped them.

Click here to learn more about CBT and how it can help you improve the way you feel.

CBT skills are widely considered to be beneficial for mental health because they teach individuals how to understand the way their minds work, engage in helpful and effective behavior, communicate assertively, look after themselves, and tackle life’s problems.

Therefore, many people who wish to address their mental health and wellbeing can benefit from learning CBT skills, whether they have a diagnosable mental health condition or not.

Doing an online CBT program from a reputable provider is a convenient, accessible, and often more affordable way of learning CBT skills.

Our online CBT programs have been specifically formulated to assist those experiencing significant symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders, and are therefore appropriate if you’ve been diagnosed with one of these conditions or simply want to tackle your difficulties before they get worse.

You can complete our anonymous online test here and see if one of our programs may be helpful to you based on how you’ve been feeling.

Yes!

Our programs have been specifically developed to assist individuals with mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorders, and to provide an adjunct or complementary support for those with severe symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorder, while they undergo another type of treatment (e.g., medication).

Please note, our programs have not been evaluated in populations who have been diagnosed as having schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, people who are dependent on drugs or alcohol; take sedative medication (e.g., Valium, Lorazepam) daily; or for people who are thinking about suicide.

Such individuals would benefit from being seen and supported by a clinician, and should seek medical advice before enrolling into a self-guided online treatment program for their mental health.

If you would like information about Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia or drug/alcohol dependence, please click on the links below:

• Bipolar Disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Drug or Alcohol Dependence

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or are having thoughts of death, self-harm or suicide, please visit our Urgent Help page by clicking here.

THIS WAY UP has the widest range of online CBT programs in Australia, which means that we have tailored programs for a variety of anxiety conditions (e.g., social anxiety, health anxiety, OCD, etc) as well as for stress, insomnia, chronic pain, and depression.

You can browse the different programs above or click here to take our anonymous online test to see which program may be beneficial depending on the way you’ve been feeling.

While our treatment programs undergo a thorough research evaluation to ensure that they are effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression, we cannot guarantee individual results.

Overall, we know that learning cognitive-behavioural skills is highly beneficial as a way of understanding and looking after your general mental health (whether you have a mental health condition or not).

Our research studies indicate that, on average, 80% of people who complete our treatment programs notice a significant improvement in how they feel, with 50% no longer being troubled by their symptoms. However, about 20% of people do not see an improvement in how they feel following our courses alone and may require further assessment and treatment.

The best person to seek personalised advice about your particular condition, situation, or circumstances is your GP or primary healthcare provider, who can do a thorough assessment and make individual recommendations.

Our research has shown that both modes of treatment have been shown to be equally effective.

However, here are some questions to consider if you are unsure of which might be more helpful for you initially:

• Is accessing face-to-face help or attending sessions regularly difficult for you at the moment? If so, consider online treatment.
• Is your problem more severe and would benefit from more intensive treatment with a clinician? If so, consider face-to-face treatment.

Some people may start with an online program before then seeking face-to-face help for more targeted advice. Other people may start with seeking face-to-face help then do a program for revision of CBT skills.

Many people benefit from undergoing both at the same time.

If you are already doing CBT with your clinician, our online programs can help reinforce the strategies you are learning.

Alternatively, if you are seeing your clinician for a particular issue but would like to simultaneously address another issue that we have an online program for, this could also be beneficial.

There are three ways you can get some guidance on which program may be suitable or appropriate for you to do.

Option 1: Hover over the program cards above to read a brief description of each course.

Then click on the “Go to Program” button to learn more about the programs that seem to tackle your most troublesome symptoms or difficulties.

You can explore our ‘symptoms-specific’ programs (e.g., the Social Anxiety Program, the OCD Program) or check out our ‘multi-symptom’ programs which focus on targeting symptoms of both anxiety and depression.

We suggest choosing a program that tackles the symptoms or difficulties which are affecting you the most right now.

Option 2: Complete our anonymous online questionnaire which will ask you a series of questions about the way you’ve been feeling lately, and make suggestions on which program to choose based on your scores.

If you’ve already taken the test and it suggested multiple options, we recommend either enrolling into a program that tackles symptoms which are most troubling or concerning to you right now or checking out our programs for mixed anxiety and depression, which tackle both sets of symptoms.

If the test suggested both a Wellbeing Program (e.g., Insomnia, Mindfulness) and a Treatment Program (e.g., the Social Anxiety Program), we suggest enrolling into a Treatment Program first as it will teach you the skills to get your symptoms under control, before you can address improving your general wellbeing.

Option 3: Speak with your regular clinician (e.g., your GP, psychologist, counsellor or other health professional) and ask them about which program would be appropriate for you.

Your clinician will be able to make suggestions based on your history and current symptoms.

If they are not familiar or registered with THIS WAY UP, you can download this Clinician Letter to take with you to your appointment. It explains how your clinician can register with us and prescribe you a desired program for free.

Our Treatment Programs (e.g., the Generalised Anxiety Program, the Depression Program) are comprehensive 6 to 8 lesson programs that have been specifically designed to tackle symptoms of diagnosable mental health conditions.

These programs teach particular CBT strategies in a particular order, and have been shown to lead to measurable reductions in the symptoms of the conditions they address.

Individuals who are having noticeable and persistent difficulties with low mood or anxiety should consider one of these treatment programs to tackle their symptoms directly.

Just like taking a course of medication for a physical illness, our treatment programs should be completed in full to get the most benefit.

Our Wellbeing Programs (e.g., Mindfulness, Stress Management) are shorter 4-lesson programs which teach general principles and CBT tools for tackling normal life stresses and improving your wellbeing.

Individuals who are generally well but are feeling like they could benefit from learning to tackle their daily problems more effectively should consider doing one of these programs first.

The terms ‘self-help’ and ‘supervised’ refer to the way you enrol into and complete our programs.

When you enrol in a program as ‘self-help’ you will be guided through the lessons by our system and will be completing it independently.

Our team is here to provide technical assistance, but we are not able to answer clinical questions or give you personalised advice about your health.

When you enrol in a program under the ‘supervision’ of your regular clinician (e.g., your GP, psychologist, psychiatrist, or other health professional) they will be able to view your progress and well-being scores, and will be able to check in on you should you require further assistance.

You may also be able to check in with them about your particular symptoms or seek further guidance on implementing the strategies you learn.

Some clinicians may choose to prescribe a program as part of your face-to-face or telehealth sessions.

Some clinicians may choose to recommend that you enrol in a program as ‘self-help’ and support you throughout without formally prescribing it to you.

Enrolling into a self-help program generally costs AUD $59 for 90 days of access, while obtaining a prescription from your regular clinician and enrolling into a program under supervision is free.

The majority of our Treatment Programs are available as both self-help* and supervised.

All of our Wellbeing Programs are free and available as self-help*.

* The self-help option is available for Australian residents only.

You can access a treatment program for free if your regular clinician is registered with THIS WAY UP and prescribes this program to you by e-mailing you a personalised registration link called a “Quickscript” using our secure online system.

Here’s how to discuss this option with your health professional:

Step 1.

Make an appointment with your clinician (e.g., your GP, Medical Specialist, Psychologist or other Allied Health Professional).

Step 2.

Download, print, and take this Clinician Letter to your appointment. This letter outlines some information about how your clinician can register with THIS WAY UP and prescribe our programs using our online system.

Step 3.

Ask your clinician if they are familiar with THIS WAY UP and tell them about the program you’d like to do.

If your clinician is new to THIS WAY UP, they may need some time to register and get to know our system, so you may not be able to get a program prescription right away.

If your clinician is able to prescribe and monitor you throughout the program, they will send you a ‘prescription’ e-mail called a “Quickscript” via our system with details on how to enrol.

Please note, it is up to individual clinicians to decide whether it is appropriate for them to prescribe and monitor you through one of our programs. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that your clinician will be able to assist you.

However, majority of our treatment programs are available as ‘self-help’ within Australia so if this option is suitable for you, you will be able to enrol and receive up to 12 months of access for AUD $59.

This is wonderful news and we look forward to having you learn CBT skills with us!

If your clinician suggested you do one of our programs as ‘self-help’, you can find the program on this page to learn more about it, before creating an account to enrol – simply follow the prompts on the individual program page or click here to sign-up.

Our online system will guide you through the steps of enrolling and starting your program.

Make sure that you ‘flag’, ‘star’, ‘whitelist’ or save all of the e-mails you receive from us into your Inbox, so that you don’t miss out on any important program materials or reminders.

If your clinician is registered with THIS WAY UP and provided you with a prescription* for a particular program, you should have received an e-mail from our system with a subject line “THIS WAY UP Program Recommended by your Clinician”.

In it, you will have the instructions on how to enrol into the program under the supervision of your clinician.

If you are having any technical difficulties with creating an account, enrolling into a ‘prescribed’ program , or getting started, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us using the options at the bottom of this page.

* A ‘prescription’ is an e-mail called a ‘Quickscript’ that your clinician sends to your nominated e-mail address using our online system.

Once you create an account and enrol into a program you will have up to 90 days* to complete all of the lessons before your program access expires.

This usually means completing a lesson every 1 to 2 weeks, which is designed to mimic receiving CBT via regular face-to-face sessions.

Our automated online system will guide you through the steps of completing your program, so make sure that you save your log-in details, as well as ‘flag’, ‘star’, or ‘whitelist’ all of the e-mails you receive from us into your Inbox, so that you don’t miss out on any important course materials or reminders.

All of the lessons, guided exercises, downloadable action plans and extra resources are located within a dedicated Course Dashboard, which you can access anytime from our website here.

It is important that you log-in and complete your lessons regularly to build momentum and master your new skills.

Across all of the programs, each lesson is made up four components:

– The Lesson. You will follow the animated story of a character(s) who experiences similar symptoms to you, and how they learned to apply the CBT skills in their day to day life

– The Lesson Summary. The CBT skills introduced in each lesson are explained in more detail here. There will also be recommended practice exercises for you to do before the next lesson, to help consolidate the new skills you have learned into everyday situations

– The Action Plan. Following each lesson you’ll receive a simple, bullet-point action list to help you put your new skills into practice. We suggest keeping these handouts visible to remind you of what to do to keep making a positive change.

– Extra Resources. This includes other interesting topics, additional strategies and frequently asked questions

If you complete your program in full within 90 days* you will automatically receive up to 12 months of additional access so you can keep coming back to revise your skills.

*Please note: For our clinician-supervised 8-lesson programs (Chronic Pain, Post Traumatic Stress), users will have 120 days to access the program.

It is common for many people to have difficulties in multiple areas at the same time (for example, low mood and anxiety, insomnia and anxiety, or more than one kind of anxiety disorder).

Given the commitment and focus required to complete a program and master all of the coping skills taught, we suggest completing one program at a time.

You could choose the program that you think would be most helpful to you right now based on the difficulties that are affecting your life the most at this point in time.

Remember, since all our programs are based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), learning CBT skills to address one particular problem can be applied to other types of problems too.

Yes! All of our Treatment Programs (e.g., the Depression Program, the Social Anxiety Program) are available worldwide when prescribed by your regular healthcare professional.

Simply speak with your usual provider (e.g., doctor, primary care physician) and see if they are familiar and registered with THIS WAY UP, and if not, download this Clinician Letter and take it with you to your appointment to discuss if you clinician can prescribe you one of our programs.

Due to our insurance requirements, our Wellbeing Programs (e.g., Insomnia, Mindfulness) and the ‘self-help’ option for the Treatment Programs are not currently available to those who reside outside of Australia.

Our Wellbeing Programs (i.e., Stress Management, Insomnia, Mindfulness, and Student Wellbeing) are free.

Our Treatment Programs (e.g., the Anxiety and Depression Program) normally cost AUD $59 for 90-days of access when used as ‘self-help’, but can be accessed for free when prescribed to you by your regular health professional (e.g., your GP or psychologist) if they’re registered with THIS WAY UP.

For instructions on how to approach your healthcare provider to discuss THIS WAY UP programs, please refer to a previous question titled “How do I get a prescription to access a treatment program for free?”

Unfortunately at present Medicare does not cover the AUD $59 fee for our self-help treatment programs.

We do, however, have a partnership with BUPA, so if you are a BUPA member you may qualify for a rebate. You will need to check your individual policy or contact BUPA for more information.

You are able to access our programs for free when they are prescribed to you by your regular health professional (e.g., your GP or psychologist). You could check with them if they are able to do this for you.

For instructions on how to approach your healthcare provider to discuss THIS WAY UP programs, please refer to a previous question titled “How do I get a prescription to access a treatment program for free?”