What are counselling and psychotherapy?

Counselling focuses on current and specific life challenges like bereavement, job loss or a recent crisis. It may be short term, lasting a few weeks to several months. Possible goals might be practical coping strategies, decision-making support or immediate problem resolution. Psychotherapy focuses on deep-rooted psychological issues, chronic trauma, and long-standing emotional or behavioral patterns. It tends towards being long term and is often open ended lasting many months or years. Possible goals might be profound self-understanding, restructuring of core personality dynamics, or long-term emotional healing.

Even if you wish for short term work I would likely have a sense of any long term issues that you may have and would be mindful of them.

Do I only come when I feel I am in crisis?

Therapy is not just for people in crisis or suffering with their mental health. Some people use it to learn about themselves and find it an insightful and enriching experience. It can be important to maintaining good mental health and for continuing personal growth.

What happens after I contact you?

If you wish, we can have a brief informal free chat on the phone or on Zoom in order to find out a bit more about what you want to get from our sessions and to answer any questions you may have. This is a good opportunity for you to get a feel for whether you think you would like to have counselling or psychotherapy with me. If you or I feel that I do not have the skills to help you then I would seek to signpost you elsewhere.

How long and often are sessions?

Sessions usually last 50 minutes or an hour. Most often they are weekly but they can be fortnightly and I aim to have them at the same time and day albeit I can be flexible when this is needed. Some people like to have an initial 6 sessions and then see how they feel at that stage. Some people like to have a break and then return to therapy later. As indicated above, some people will stay in therapy for years. I did, and it was profoundly helpful.

Will talking about it make me feel worse?

Having the space to let things out can feel very cathartic. Knowing that you have the space to come to talk things through can be quite a relief. However, revealing oneself can feel very unnerving, scary even. Exploring the past, perhaps difficult childhood events can be painful. This is why it is often better to take these things slowly. You do not need to 'dump' these things out in the initial sessions and indeed doing so can lead to a sense of shame and a reluctance to continue. We can find a pace that suits you. And, of course, you do not have to tell me everything if you do not wish to. I wish you to feel safe in the knowledge that you are in charge of what is talked about. Discovering yourself, albeit it can be difficult, can be transformational.

What approach do I need?

What style of therapy and what types of intervention are needed will depend upon you, your presenting issues, your way of being and your wishes. I will endeavour to tailor my approach to match you. As stated elsewhere there are all manner of types of therapy such as CBT, which can look at confronting or understanding unhelpful thoughts, or such as body work (I do not generally touch) which can look at how issues present somatically. In fact, there are over 400 modalities of psychotherapy and that means that nobody can know them all. But they are all designed to help people and all share that same goal.

Is what we talk about confidential?

Client confidentiality is one of the central ethical pillars of therapy. Only in certain prescribed circumstances would your details be disclosed to others e.g. a threat of harm to you or others and almost always only with your permission. It is important for you to be aware that you can freely discuss with me anything that you wish to in the knowledge that it will not go beyond the four walls in which I am sitting.

When therapists take our cases to clinical training, supervision or research the clients are anonymised so that no-one can realise who it is that we are discussing.

What do we talk about?

We might discuss your past, your future, your present. Your fears, your goals, your current relationship with the people around you. We might do some exercises to help you feel better. We might have you learn how to self-soothe. We might simply sit and emotionally hold you through your journey. Often people talk about what is going on at present and past influences slowly reveal themselves. I will obviously ask questions but I will also ask what it is you want to talk about and what you hope to achieve in therapy.

What is humanistic therapy?

Humanistic therapy believes that everyone has the innate drive and energy to grow (In TA they call this physis). The client and the therapist are partners in helping the client to actualise their potential and to be authentically themselves, focusing on the client's reality and lived feelings. The space is non-judgemental. As I said earlier, I am very much in the room with you.

What is an integrative therapist?

An integrative therapist is one that seeks to synthesise methods from different schools. To use differing techniques or ideas to match the client as opposed to shoehorning the client into one system. As stated elsewhere, I am a pluralist and I continue to look at all sorts of training and reading to see what is out there. This includes looking at information about neuroscience.

What is Transactional Analysis?

Transactional Analysis (TA) is a mainly talking therapy that has physis (life force) in mind. The belief is that everyone has value, even though we may have forgotten this along life's path or been made to feel otherwise, perhaps from a young age. It is itself a fairly pluralistic theory that contains many different aspects and possible techniques. A lot of the theory is very accessible so that anyone can understand it, such as one of the main base theories of Ego States - that at any time we may be in one of three internal ego states, they being:

Child - the inner child with its developmentally nuanced patterns of thinking and being, for instance unfettered joy or fettered fear

Parent - introjected from our past parental figures, including society, which may influence what we feel we can do

Adult - the here and now reality seeing state which is unencumbered by past issues and allows us to think, feel or behave according to the situation that we are in, as opposed to reacting in a way that is triggered by our past

Supervision

In line with all (I hope) therapists I have a supervisor that I can take my cases to for advice. All people, including therapists, have blind spots and everyone should be able to listen to advice. It ensures that you get the best help that is peer reviewed.

Membership bodies

I am a member of UKCP (the leading professional body and regulator for psychotherapists in the UK) and UKATA (the UK Association of Transactional Analysts) and I abide by their ethical principles.

Cancellation policy

Please give me at least 48 hours notice by text message if you cannot make an appointment. Later cancellation might induce a cancellation fee which may be the full fee, dependant upon the circumstances and the timing.

If I have to cancel a session there will be no charge to you.