Meeting for the first time
If you are interested in having counselling, please contact me to book an introductory session. If we decide to continue with counselling, you will be asked to sign a contract which outlines the boundaries within which the counselling will take place.
Getting the most from counselling
Counselling is not a quick fix, and as with any process, sustained commitment is required in order to maximise the benefit to you. You will therefore need to meet with your therapist on a weekly basis in order to sustain momentum and progress.
Counselling will inevitably make demands on your time, energy and finances. It is not uncommon in counselling for people to feel worse for a while, as they begin to open up issues they’ve been trying not to face up to. It is important that you are not left in an emotionally difficult place without the tools to deal with the pain; please therefore consider whether you are in the right place in your life to embark on a course of counselling and whether you have the financial resources to sustain the counselling relationship for as long as is necessary for you to feel your difficulties are sufficiently resolved.
It is not possible to tell at the outset how many counselling sessions you will need. Some people may need therapy for only a few weeks; people with long-standing or complex difficulties may need many more sessions. However, you will never be pressurised to have more sessions than you actually need or want, and you are free to leave counselling at any time.
Confidentiality
All information disclosed during the counselling process is held in the strictest confidence. There are one or two exceptions to this, which will be discussed during the first session.
Ending counselling
If you have been working with your counsellor for some time, it can be very beneficial to explore what feels right in terms of closing the work. Endings are a normal part of life, but they can often be difficult to process and move on from. In counselling, you have an opportunity to experience an ending in a more conscious way, which can enable you to move on without any unfinished business. Abrupt endings or wanting to close the work without notice may be part of a pattern of avoiding dealing with conflict, anger, sadness or other feelings. It may be really helpful for you to have the opportunity to process these feelings before ending counselling.
If you would like to book an introductory session to help decide whether counselling is right for you, please get in touch.