The Sussex Psychosis (Paranoia) Experiences and Recovery (SuPER) clinic aims to develop, evaluate and implement evidence-based psychological therapies for psychosis, such as unusual distressing experiences, in community mental health teams in the Trust.
We do this through developing projects to better understand and support people with unusual distressing experiences and psychosis through research and novel treatments. This includes:
- Training staff to deliver evidence-based interventions across community mental health teams
- Evaluating outcomes of the interventions, and contributing to the research around supporting those with unusual distressing experiences
- Learning and innovating, working with research and clinical colleagues to deliver novel therapies in our services
- Promoting and supporting digital approaches to service delivery and care
- Disseminating findings from new research in psychosis, our own and international evidence-base for understanding and treating unusual distressing experiences and psychosis through the Sussex Psychosis Research interest Group (SPRiG).
Underpinning our work is a partnership with people with lived experience to ensure everything we do is meaningful and effective.
The SuPER clinic work with people who experience unusual distressing experiences, people experiencing paranoia and people with difficulties with everyday life and functions in the context of psychosis.
What therapies will we offer?
SloMo is a digitally-supported talking therapy for people with worries about harm from others.
It works by supporting people to slow down fast thinking habits that can contribute to worries, to find ways of feeling safer and living well. Our previous research has found that SloMo is helpful, and that people find it enjoyable and easy to use.
The SloMo2 study will find out whether SloMo can be delivered in the NHS.
If the study works, we hope to make SloMo more widely available in the NHS.
This 2-minute video explains SloMo therapy
How it works
SloMo is available to people who are currently under the care of NHS services, where a SloMo trained therapist is available, and an assessment has indicated the therapy would be suitable for them.
- If you are interested in trying SloMo, contact your care co-ordinator, doctor or the SloMo team.
- To refer somebody for SloMo therapy, contact your team’s SloMo trained therapist directly.
- If you are unsure if your team has a SloMo-trained therapist, or would like to find out about therapy training opportunities, please contact us by email at: spft.slomotherapy@
nhs.net
This 2-minute video from King's College London explains more about how SlowMo therapy helps people to manage paranoid thoughts:
The SuPER Clinic works closely with the Sussex Recovery College to integrate the therapies into the curriculum, to promote understanding, early intervention and self-management among service users, families and carers.
About the Recovery College
Recovery College offers educational courses that focus on mental health and recovery with courses designed to increase your knowledge and skills and help promote self-management. The aim is to enable you to take control by becoming an expert in your own wellbeing, so you can get on with your life despite mental health challenges – whether yours or those of someone close to you.
We serve the whole of West and East Sussex. Courses are free to adults of all ages. Whether you’re looking to develop your knowledge and skills in self-management, you support somebody with mental health-related challenges, or you work in mental health services, we’re delighted to welcome you on a learning journey.
There are many ways you can get involved with Sussex Recovery College:
- You can enrol as a student and attend courses
- You can apply to become a peer trainer or carer trainer
- You can suggest courses you would like us to run or attend open forum meetings in your local area about the development and running of the college and campus.
- You can offer to co-facilitate courses as a mental health professional.
Booking onto a course
You can apply to join up to three courses per term by registering an expression of interest:
www.sussexrecoverycollege.org.uk and click on the green ‘register and sign up here’ button.
All courses are free for adults with mental health-related challenges, their supporters (relatives and carers) and staff of Sussex
Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and our partner organisations.
The Feeling Safe Programme is a type of cognitive therapy that has been shown to be effective in reducing persistent persecutory delusions. This ground-breaking cognitive treatment is based on 15 years of psychological research, clinical practice and service user input. It consists of modules, each addressing the different factors which maintain persecutory delusions, such as worry, poor sleep and low self-confidence. People choose the modules most relevant to them and, in the order of their choice, work with psychologists for over 20 sessions. The core belief is that people can make gains by trying things out in their daily life. The Feeling Safe trial showed that the programme is most effective for persecutory delusions, with three-quarters of people who received the intervention making large or moderate gains.
This illustration explains the therapy and research in more detail.
Click here to watch an animation about the Feeling Safe Programme
How it works
Practitioner psychologists working in our adult psychosis services have been trained in delivering Feeling Safe therapy.
We'll update this page with more information about how to make referrals in due course.
Research publications
Freeman, D., Emsley, R., Diamond, R., Collett, N., Bold, E., Chadwick, E., Isham, L., Bird, J., Edwards, D., Kingdon, D., Fitzpatrick, R., Kabir, T., Waite, F.,&Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis Trial Study Group (2021).
Co-designing technology to improve psychological therapy for psychosis: SloMo, a blended digital therapy for fear of harm from others.
Hardy, A. et al. (2024). Schizophrenia Research.
Optimising SloMo, a digitally supported therapy targeting paranoia, for implementation using inclusive, human-centred design.
Gant, T. et al. (submitted). JMIR Human Factors.
SlowMo therapy, a new digital blended therapy for fear of harm from others: An account of therapy personalisation within a targeted intervention. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, papt.12377.
Ward, T., Hardy, A., Holm, R., Collett, N., Rus‐Calafell, M., Sacadura, C., McGourty, A., Vella, C., East, A., Rea, M., Harding, H., Emsley, R., Greenwood, K. et al. (2022).
The service user experience of SlowMo therapy: A co‐produced thematic analysis of service users’ subjective experience. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, papt.12393.
Greenwood, KE et al (2022).
The impact of Patient and Public Involvement in the SlowMo study: Reflections on peer innovation. Health Expectations, 25(1), 191–202.
Greenwood, K., Robertson, S. et al. (2022).
Effects of SlowMo, a Blended Digital Therapy Targeting Reasoning, on Paranoia Among People With Psychosis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 78(7), 714
Garety, P., Ward, T., Emsley, R., Greenwood, K. et al. (2021).
A Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) guides the work of the clinic.
If you'd like to get involved, please get in touch with Lucy Walsh in the Patient and Public Involvement in Research team to find out more: lucy.
Email: spft.
Address: SuPER Clinic, Research and Development, Sussex Education Centre, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Mill View Hospital Site, Nevill Avenue, Hove BN3 7HZ
