Editorial: Deciding To Start Therapy

The Search

If you are searching for a therapist then I wish the absolute best for you on the path ahead. Making the move from just not feeling like yourself, constantly tired and overwhelmed or feeling stuck to considering therapy is a brave step. I intend to make it as straightforward as possible to receive my feedback on available help for your situation. But I appreciate that I may be one of your possible avenues for a therapist and I am highly responsive to all new client enquiries.

Booking The First Consultation

The first consultation is a conversation that you can start from whatever point makes sense to you. I’m going to listen quietly, intensively, thoughtfully before offering my views based on clinical research and experience. I create a private, confidential, safe and compassionate space indoors in a therapy room to examine your unique situation with empathy.

Psychological therapies can offer insights and practical ways of doing things differently, if a therapeutic relationship is consistent and genuine. I trust that the first consultation gives you some sense of working together my values and professional ethics as a HCPC Registered Counselling Psychologist.

Therapy with a Counselling Psychologist

Formulation-led one-to-one psychological therapy

If we decide to start therapy, a single session, short term weekly sessions, booster sessions or working together for a longer time are possible paths. In the second and third sessions, I will suggest we work on mapping a sensitive and careful holistic formulation. Formulating together can untangle your highly individual situation, position or state right now. I may introduce ways for us to gather some specific, standardised information that we can then discuss and interpret together. Our formulation is dynamic and central to planning the unique piece of therapeutic work. You can expect working together on specific psychological interventions delivered according to explicit theoretical framework, sound empirical evidence and professional judgement of what can work for you. Client feedback on what I offer is welcomed.  

Whilst we may agree a tailored therapeutic plan, this is tentative, responsive and flexible to you. Whether you have just a feeling that things need to change or you have a specific goal, you are the best judge of your progress. From deciding to start therapy to a genuine therapeutic relationship, you’ll know when you’ve found the benefits you need and when our work has come to an end.