According to the BBC, the independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism suggests that some young people on waiting lists may benefit from non-medical support in the meantime. So what could non-medical support look like?

A prescription has a simple structure. What to take. How much. How often. “Twice a day, with food.” It is clear, it is repeatable, and we know what to do with it.

In August 2025 I asked myself a question. If a medical doctor can prescribe a dose of medication, can we prescribe a dose of psychological skills practice?

I called it a PsycheScription®: a short, guided, follow-along practice for one specific psychological skill, with a dose.

Here is one, for decompressing and recovering from stress (the “do it with me” video is linked at the end):

  1. Sit comfortably and feel your feet on the floor. Let your shoulders drop by five per cent.
  2. Breathe in for a count of three and out for a count of six. Three times.
  3. Rate how activated you feel, from 0 (most relaxed) to 10 (most stressed).
  4. Scan your body for where the tension sits, and name it simply: “tight chest”, “buzzing jaw”. Naming tells our nervous system there is information here, not danger.
  5. Do one tiny thing it seems to need: roll your shoulders, sip water, lengthen your exhale.
  6. Rest in stillness for 60 seconds, then rate 0 to 10 again. What shifted, even by five per cent?
  7. Choose one gentle next step for your day.

Dose: two to five minutes between tasks, every day, plus a longer reset once a week.

The intention with this particular skill is to train an automatic, body-based procedure that helps us:

  • recover from everyday stress, and from being triggered
  • gradually break the circuit of unhealthy “recovery” habits, such as alcohol, nicotine, gambling, shopping or over-eating
  • build the body awareness that later skills depend on: regulating our body and our emotions, and a healthy sense of worth that does not rest on appearance, performance or approval

In more than 20 years and 1,200+ clients, I have found that most difficulties benefit from starting here. It is one skill in a wider curriculum, built in the order we naturally develop.

Why the prescription format? Because many of these patterns were built through repetition, and in my experience they usually change the same way. Insight helps us understand a pattern. Practice makes a new response available under pressure. We do not need a perfect hour. We need a repeatable minute.

A PsycheScription is not a replacement for medication, therapy or crisis support, and it is not a cure. It sits alongside them. If a practice ever makes you feel worse, stop, open your eyes and look around the room.

This is clinical observation, not a trial. PsycheVita is evidence-informed and not yet evidence-based.

If you could prescribe one psychological skill to practise daily, which would it be?

Try the Recovery and Decompression PsycheScription, free to view for a limited time: “do it with me” video. See VitaPath for the order in which to build the skills, and sign up to the PsycheVita newsletter.

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