What To Expect

Being in therapy is a commitment that you make to yourself. It is important that you find the right approach and person to work with.

The way that I work is to try to understand what you are wanting from therapy. I want to know what troubles you and how we might meet your experience in the here and now so that you may be able to connect with parts of yourself that you may have needed to separate from a long time ago.

It is completely natural to repress or deny parts of ourselves to protect us from feelings that may have been too difficult to feel at the time. Injurious feelings and emotions from early-life will often ‘disappear’ into unconscious realms, by becoming split-off, repressed, denied, or avoided. They go underground as a way to protect us from their painful effects, as they are too much for us to manage at the time we experienced them. We need our defenses, and yet such un-experienced feelings, if traumatic enough, remain embedded in our unconscious as well as our body and nervous system. Their painful effects can continue to affect our physical bodies and emotional life for many years, along with the quality of our relationships. The therapeutic space is a place to explore how our past shows up in the present, often pulling us out of shape in ways that we neither understand or even notice.

The work that I do can be longer-term work but it can also have a positive impact in the shorter term too. There is no “one size fits all”.

Once you have made contact with me, either by phone or email, I would let you know what spaces I have available. Should any of them be suitable, we would then look to arrange a face to face meeting. This would be our first session and there is no commitment to go beyond this session should you decide that I am not the right practitioner for you.

This session is an opportunity for you to meet me and experience how I work. I see this as a session which is why it is charged for. I am very happy to offer a brief phone conversation or email exchange to discuss what you are looking for so that you can decide if you feel like going ahead with a session.

I will give you a copy of my psychotherapy agreement, which covers the terms on which I work, specifically around strict confidentiality and my policy on cancellations. This document also makes reference to the ethical standards I adhere to. You are very welcome to take time to reflect on this meeting and maybe meet other therapists before making your decision. Or you may decide straight away to continue to work with me.

Psychotherapy is not something you must be ‘ill’ or ‘sick’ to utilise or gain from. It is called-for when there is emotional disturbance, but it is also one way among many to grow, through contacting ourselves more fully. Psychologically healthy people often find benefit from having a person with whom to discuss their life, emotions and relationships, on a regular basis.

“Most of us have been dragged kicking and screaming to the realization that what really works in psychotherapy is the relationship between the therapist and the client… We are all devastated by this reality because we spent years and a lot of money learning a particular technique or theory, and it is very disheartening to realise that what we learned is only the vehicle or springboard to create a relationship – which is where the real work happens”

Daniel Stern