Depression is a chronic illness that has a recurring pattern in those who are vulnerable to it.

As we know, the sources of vulnerability are many and varied- from childhood experience to personality, from genetics to lifestyle and life experience, but whatever the source of vulnerability people remain vulnerable after an episode, unless action is taken to improve their resilience.

Our job as therapists and counsellors does not end when the people we see recover from an episode of depression. We (and they) still have a lot of work to do.

We’ve known since the late 1990s (from the work of Williams, Teasdale and Segal) that regular mindfulness practice can help prevent depression recurrence.

We all know the value of exercise to our physical and mental wellbeing, but the evidence is accumulating that regular exercise helps prevent depression recurrence as well.

On an individual basis people may need a range of other lifestyle changes as well and we need to go there with them and discover what these are if we hope to help them decrease their risk of recurrence. They may also need some kind of insight-oriented psychotherapy to help them understand their vulnerability.

It’s likely that a lot of these recommendations will fall on deaf ears if we don’t follow it up, and especially if we don’t turn it into an individualised written relapse prevention plan.

Most of us will be familiar with prevention plans.

Black Dog Institute has a template that discusses identification of a  “relapse signature” , an important first step in the development of a relapse prevention plan.

Also on the Black Dog Institute site there is a simple template for a wellbeing plan for someone with bipolar disorder which may help you develop one to use for yourself.

There are lots of relapse prevention templates online. THISWAYUP also have a simple relapse prevention template that you might find useful. Personally I like the one from the University of Washington which includes a PHQ9 for self-monitoring and an example of a completed plan to make it easier to understand what needs to be done.

What you use as a relapse prevention plan is up to you – the important thing is that you do it.

This can seem like a very detailed and time-consuming activity when the person you are talking to is on the road to recovery and there is a queue of unwell people waiting outside your door.

Many of us are happy to be involved in relapse prevention but don’t have the time to do it in detail. This is yet another place where using online programs can be helpful.

For example, every THISWAYUP Treatment Program and Mindspot Clinic Course has a module dedicated to relapse prevention. Your client/patient can use these programs to reinforce the work you have done in session, understand the importance of what you are saying about relapse prevention and hopefully feel motivated to do what they need to do.