My Belief

My personal belief is that by exploring in therapy we can gain understanding of our

whys. Why I do this, why this hurts, why this makes me feel better, our patterns or

habits.

By understanding them we gain the ability to choose to keep them or begin to

change them. It's hard to conceptualise how to affect true change without

understanding what we are changing, both the benefits and the losses that will

come with it.

My aim is to be alongside you in both parts of this journey, understanding and

growing, which will look different for every individual. For very few is it a simple

linear path.

First Session

Starting therapy is often a big step, especially for the first time, and there may be many conflicting emotions towards it. My priority is to ensure a safe collaborative space where you are confident to express yourself and over time feel able to tackle your biggest challenges.
A first session with me looks a bit different. I will be information gathering to better understand the work ahead and help us to decide whether, and how, to work together.

I will primarily be looking to understand: what is bringing you to counselling, your familial background, your expectations or previous work in therapy, and what you'd ideally like to gain within the work.

Ongoing Work

Generally I like to have a goal for the work in mind, not so every session is focused on it, but so that it can be in the background of any work we do and can be brought in when relevant and to ensure we don't forget about it entirely.
I will seek to create a comfortable space where you can explore anything and everything without fear of judgement where we can build a relationship that works for us.

Some sessions may be light and insightful, others might be heavy or even feel stuck as we work through all that it means to be you.
Generally we will keep our work within the bounds of our sessions but at times when it feels appropriate I may offer tools or reflections to support our work between sessions.

Endings can be unexpected and there is space for that, but ideally, when we agree upon an ending we can then have a few more sessions. This is to wrap up the work in the way that best lets you continue it going forwards and manage the myriad of things that can come up in endings.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality means that what you say in a session stays in the session, with only a few exceptions, such as risk of serious harm.

 

Here is the link for the BACP's ethical framework on confidentiality which I adhere to.

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