Starting therapy can be incredibly daunting, especially if you've never done it before, so to help take some of the uncertainty away, I've broken down the process of starting - and continuing therapy with me.
STEP 1 - REACH OUT
The first step is for you to reach out to me by email. I always provide a free 30 minute relaxed videocall session for people who are thinking about starting therapy so I'll email you back with some dates and times that I'm available to do that.
When we've agreed on a date and time I'll email you a videocall link (using GoogleMeet) which you simply click on at the time and date of the session and we’ll be connected automatically. It’s very easy to use.
STEP 2 - FREE 30 MINUTE VIDEOCALL SESSION
At the start of the videocall I'll introduce myself and check in with how you're feeling - I know it can be an anxiety provoking situation, so I'll offer to do the talking for a couple of minutes and tell you about myself and also about how confidentiality is managed in a therapy relationship.
This generally helps people get acclimatised to the situation and begin too feel more at ease. After that I'll ask if you're OK to answer some questions such as...
What made you seek out therapy at this time?
Have you had therapy before? How was it?
What would you like to achieve with therapy?
Have you had therapy before? How was it?
What would you like to achieve with therapy?
Any this time I'll get a good sense of whether I'm able to help and you might have a sense of whether or not I'm the right therapist for you, so we'll swap our thoughts.
If we both feel we would be a good fit, we just need to organise a few more details to make sure we're able to proceed to full sessions. Things like...
Do you want videocall or in-person sessions?
Do you want weekly, fortnightly or every 3 weeks?
If it's in-person, can you manage stairs?
Do you want weekly, fortnightly or every 3 weeks?
If it's in-person, can you manage stairs?
When that's complete we can schedule our first full length session.
STEP 3 - THE FULL LENGTH SESSION
During the first full length session we need to spend a few minutes completing two pieces of paperwork - a therapy contract and an agreement that enables me to manage your personal data. These can be filled out at either the start or the end of the session depending on which feels more appropriate at the time (some people are still not sure whether to commit to ongoing sessions at the beginning of this session so in this case I'd leave the paperwork until the end and check in to see if they do want to continue).
Apart from the paperwork, the session proceeds with you being given the time and space to talk about whatever it is you feel you need to. And this is where the real therapy starts, with you leading the direction of your journey, and me helping you to feel ever more safe and secure in order for your exploration to become ever more closely attuned to your intuitive truth, your needs and your goals.
It can be a truly unique experience, sometimes hard, painful, joyful, surprising, baffling, exhilirating... but always in my experience, deeply rewarding for both of us.
To see if I can be of help to you, book a free 30 minute videocall session.
For more information about how I work visit the Blog.
