What happens in the first counselling session?
You’ll have a chance to talk about what brings you to counselling and I can outline the ways in which we might work together.
If you’re thinking about booking then you are welcome to contact me to arrange a free short call/online meeting so we can discuss details including session duration (usually one hour), frequency and price.
If you decide to go ahead, we will meet (in person, online or on the phone) at which point I will take a few essential details from you, make sure you are happy to go ahead with counselling and then we can begin our work.
What if I don’t know where to start?
People often worry that they won’t know where to begin. It’s absolutely normal to be anxious about telling your story but there’s no right way to do it. There are as many different ways to begin counselling as there are people in the world because we are all unique individuals.
Having trained using techniques from many different kinds of counselling and psychotherapy, I am confident that, together, we will find a way to understand your problems that feels manageable for you. Many clients report that just coming to their first appointment and knowing they’ve embarked on a healing journey gives them relief and new hope.
Whatever you bring to our first meeting is the right place for you to start and we can work from there.
How long will I need counselling for?
You are an individual and your response to counselling will be specific to you. Some issues can be resolved in a relatively short number of sessions, some take longer. I make sure that we have plenty of opportunities to review the work we are doing and to get feedback from you on how you feel things are going.
Good counselling should equip you with new skills, insights and perspectives which you can take with you after you leave - the idea is that we make you into your own counsellor. However, if you need a refresher in the future then you can always get back in touch and book some more sessions.
Can we work online or over the phone?
Yes, I offer in person sessions in addition to online sessions or telephone counselling. If you’d like to know more about how this works then I can outline that for you in a short, introductory chat.
