What to Expect
Therapy can come in many shapes and sizes. Here is what you can expect from choosing counselling with me.
My approach
I am a UK-Qualified Integrative Counsellor and Psychotherapist. Integrative psychotherapy is a very effective form of counselling because it encompasses the majority of all the other theories, including, psychodynamic, humanistic, transpersonal and body-psychotherapy.
With an Integrative approach, I am not restricted to a single theoretical approach. I am able to adjust and fine tune the kind of therapy I offer according to the situation, continuously over time as the therapy evolves.
I work with multiple theoretical approaches simultaneously, as this offers the client a much more thorough, effective remedy.
I also enjoy working creatively, I have found that it can be enormously helpful in releasing blockages in thought processes and accessing more fluid thinking. This can take the form of gestalt exercises, painting or drawing with the left hand and visualisations.
I am always careful and only suggest these types of exercises if you have shown an interest in working like this.
The structure
I work with individuals, couples and families. I offer both short term (6-10 weeks) and long term therapy (open ended) .
We usually meet at the same time and place each week for 1 hour. I do however, also offer Online sessions - This can be particularly helpful if you need to travel regularly or if you unable to meet me in person.
Counselling or psychotherapy are 'talking therapies', meaning most of what we do is talk (and listen).
This is your session and you can use this time to tell me how you are feeling or any event you wish to discuss, (including how you might be feeling about therapy). I listen intently to what you say and reflect carefully on this.
My job is to help bring you insight and understanding about how your unconscious (thoughts you are not aware of) is affecting the way you see and feels things in your life currently. I will help you to untangle these sometimes painful, conflicting feelings and work on ways to integrate them so you can begin to feel genuinely autonomous in your life choices.
Therapy is about getting to the root of your problems and looking at new directions in which to move forward constructively.
Everything we discuss is strictly confidential. Payment in full is due at the beginning of each session.
The first session
This is really an opportunity for us to meet and get to know each other. There is no long term contract at this stage and you should feel free to ask me any questions you want. We can talk about the reasons you want to start therapy and we can think about different ways you would like to use our sessions to get the most from it.
At the end of the first session, I recommend you take some time to think about how this went and then, when you are ready, you can decide whether or not you want to proceed with me as your therapist.
If you decide you do, then we will arrange to meet for a further 5 sessions, where we will explore your issues in a much deeper way. These further 5 sessions allow you enough time to get a better idea of how the therapy works and at the end of which, you should feel a significant improvement.
We will reassess the situation at this point and you can give me your feedback on how you feel it is going. You can then decide whether you want to carry on the counselling or if the short term therapy was enough to feel a positive change.