Consultation session:

The consultation session is a little different than an ongoing therapy session as I am likely to ask more questions in order to get an overall picture of your life history. Your life history provides a context for your present issues.

Along with a life history the aim of the first session is to explore what has brought you to therapy and what you hope to gain. 

If you then wish to proceed we will discuss and agree the practical arrangements for regular ongoing sessions including frequency and cost.

Sessions are generally weekly and last fifty minutes. 

Ongoing therapy:

Ongoing therapy provides the opportunity for us to make sense of your feelings thoughts and behaviours and to help you develop resources to live life more fully.

In psychotherapy a confidential therapeutic relationship provides a framework in which to explore difficulties and support change.

I aim to create a safe reflective space where you can develop a capacity to grow emotionally both personally and in your relationships. This will enable you to establish more constructive and effective ways of acting in your life.

We will explore:

 •  what is happening in your life at the moment 
 •  what has happened to you in the past
 •  how the past might be impacting on the present 
 •  and what you are thinking and feeling in the session.

I offer short term counselling (usually around 15-30 sessions) focusing  on specific issues and longer term psychotherapy (over a year and sometimes several years) for more in-depth exploration. Everyone’s therapy is unique and different lengths of time are needed. 

Psychotherapy progresses in steps and stages and together we can discuss and decide when to you wish to stop. This may be because you feel you have done enough at this point. You may wish to restart therapy at a later date if you wish to explore any issues further or if you face new difficulties.