The NHS Talking Therapies, for anxiety and depression programme (formerly known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies - IAPT) was developed to improve the delivery of, and access to, evidence-based, NICE recommended, psychological therapies for depression and anxiety disorders within the NHS.

NHS Talking Therapies, for anxiety and depression services are characterised by three key principles:

1. All psychological therapies offered are evidence-based and delivered at the appropriate dose: where NICE recommended therapies are matched to the mental health problem, and the intensity and duration of delivery is designed to optimise clinical outcomes.
2. All within the clinical workforce are appropriately trained and supervised: high-quality care is provided by clinicians who are trained to an agreed level of competence and accredited in the specific therapies they deliver, and they receive weekly outcomes focused supervision from senior clinical practitioners with the relevant competences to support continual improvement.
3. Routine outcome monitoring via standardised measures is used on a session-by-session basis, so that the person having therapy and the clinician offering it have up-to-date information on the person's progress. The outcomes of all NHS Talking Therapies, for anxiety and depression services are published so that the sector can learn from variation in outcomes and public transparency about the benefits and limitations of the services is maintained. This helps guide the course of each person's treatment and provides a resource for service improvement, transparency, and public accountability. Services are delivered using a stepped-care model, which works according to the principle that people should be offered the least intrusive intervention appropriate for their needs first.

NHS Talking Therapies, for anxiety and depression services provide treatment for people with the following common mental health problems: Agoraphobia Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) Depression Generalised anxiety disorder Health anxiety (hypochondriasis) Mixed depression and anxiety (the term for sub-syndromal depression and anxiety, rather than both depression and anxiety) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Panic disorder Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Social anxiety disorder Specific phobias (such as heights, flying, spiders etc.).