What to expect in therapy

You can reach me by email, phone, text or by using the contact sheet below.  We can then arrange a free 30 minute chat where you can talk about what you want from therapy and I can listen and offer my thoughts. If you then decide you want to go ahead we will discuss whether you would like telephone or zoom sessions and we will agree on a date and time for your first session. 

 

In the first session I will conduct a brief assessment and take some contact details from you, then we will explore in more depth what your goals are for the work. This helps us settle into the process and to get to know each other more. Each therapy hour is an opportunity for you to talk about what is bothering you and I will listen and ask you about what you have said. Therapy isn't something that is 'done' to you but is an active, engaged process where you gradually come to know yourself better.  Therapy is a collaborative effort - you being the driver and me the navigator.  You decide where you want to go and I'm there to suggest directions and to keep an eye on the speed.  

 

We will meet, in the majority of cases, once per week for 50 minutes to one hour. 

 

I will often be checking in how you are finding the process and the work and we can adjust to suit you as we go. 

 

Whatever you have been through - a bereavement, trauma, or are suffering from low self-esteem, persistent low mood, anxiety or insomnia then I will also use psychoeducation. The more you understand how brains work, how dissociation works, or what happens to the brain during childhood or during trauma, it will help you to understand yourself and have a respect for the ways you have been managing your distress so far. It will also help you learn new ways to cope by giving you not just a new way to think about what you have been through, but new tools to manage. 

 

Through therapy you can better listen to yourself without a lot of mental chatter and negative thinking - and become more open to all of your feelings; you will have the increasing ability to live more fully in each moment without the burden of the past or anxieties about the future dominating your life; and you will develop an increasing trust in your feelings, reactions and intuitive skills. In short you will know yourself better and consequently will feel more comfortable with yourself, others and your world.