What To Expect from your Counselling Sessions
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I change.”
-Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy
What can I offer you as your therapist?
I offer a confidential space either online or over the phone for you to talk through your thoughts, feelings and emotions. I am available weekdays and some evenings
We will always work in an open and collaborative way, and I will never tell you how to feel, think, or act. This is your space and your time to explore all of your feelings in a place that will hopefully become a place of safety for you to be yourself in.
It’s so important to find a therapist that gets you, and one who you feel you can share openly with. I can also offer you a free 15 minute introductory phone or video call before you decide whether to go ahead with choosing me as your therapist.
What happens in our sessions?
If after our introductory call we feel we would be a good fit to work together, we will arrange our first therapy session. This will be 50 minutes long, and sessions will be online via a secure telemedicine video platform, or over the phone depending on your preference. Our sessions will usually be on the same day and time each week.
Our first session will involve a little bit of getting to know each other. You can tell me about your hopes for counselling, whether you have had counselling before, and the important things that you’d like to work on, and I can tell you a bit more about how I work, and what I will do to support you in your sessions.
There will also be some paperwork to complete, including a counselling contract that I will email to you before our first session, and a questionnaire that will give me an idea of your recent thoughts and feelings.
How many sessions will you have and how much will therapy cost?
I offer long and short-term therapy. Whether you feel ready to end after 3 months or 3 years, we will work together towards whatever feels right for you. We will review how you feel your counselling is going every couple of months.
My fees are currently £35 per session. You can pay via bank transfer, this will need to be paid 48 hours before our session.
I will send you an appointment and payment reminder the day before. If payment isn’t received the day before our session, then unfortunately the session cannot go ahead.
What is my counselling style?
I trained as a person-centred counsellor. Very simply, my role is to be right beside you so you can safely start to explore who you are on a deeper level, because you are the expert on you. You can read more about person-centred theory here.
My therapeutic approach is integrative, this means that I use some skills and techniques from different types of therapeutic approaches, such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Transactional Analysis, and Gestalt Therapy.
Being an integrative therapist is a bit like having a tool box full of really unique approaches that you can use at different times, for different things. It all depends on what you need during our time together.
Do people feel nervous to start therapy?
Absolutely! Some people can feel nervous to start talking about the big things that they’ve experienced. It is a very normal feeling to have, and definitely a feeling I felt when I had my own therapy.
When we shut things away in a box in our minds it can get harder over time to try to open the box, and sometimes this worry about what might happen can bring nerves and even some anxiety.
You will be safely held by me to explore those boxes, when you feel ready to. And even if you never feel ready, that is also okay. Just recognising that therapy could have the power to help you, is progress.
All parts of you are welcome
I am always inclusive in my practice, and work through an intersectional, anti-oppressive, neurodivergent-affirming, and trauma-informed lens.
I am part of the neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ community and I welcome people to explore all aspects of identity, sexuality, and relationships in our sessions. There is no shame or judgement, just the opportunity to have a deeper, more compassionate understanding of yourself. I have extensive experence of working with transgender and non-binary people, as well as being non-binary myself.