A beginning, middle and end
Whether our work together is short-term, of fixed duration or open-ended - it all starts with a first contact, then moves to a first meeting, then to a block of meetings with regular reviews and then to a last meeting.
What is the next step?
Meet? When and Where?
1st Meeting
Working Together
Finishing Therapy
What is the next step?
It is important that you find a counsellor you feel comfortable with and are able to talk to.
Please contact me so I can answer any questions you have and you can let me know a bit about what has prompted you to look for a counsellor.
We can then see whether what I do may be useful to you.
I will let you know you straightaway if I do not offer what you are looking for so you do not waste your time, energy and money.
If we decide to take it further we will agree a time to meet.
Meet? When and Where?
When
Weekend, afternoon and evening appointments
Appointments are usually for one hour, if this is difficult for any reason we can agree something that will suit you better
Where
We will meet on-line using Zoom video calls
You do not need to have a Zoom account
I will send you an invitation with a link to our meeting and any information you need to join me
First Meeting
Our first meeting is a chance for me to listen to some of what is troubling you and for you to ask any questions you want.
We can then both think about what would be useful to you, what we could do and how we would do it.
This would include what our focus would be, the number and duration of meetings and your preferred approach.
We would begin to consider the question of - how will you know this is worth your time, energy and money?
This gets us started, as we get more familiar with what we are doing you can adjust any of it.
Working Together
There are many reasons to use counselling and psychotherapy.
There are many different ways of thinking and different approaches to life.
What is troubling you may have just occurred or be urgent. It could have been with you a long time or you may be revisiting something you have used counselling for before.
I work with a small number of people and can tailor how I work for each person.
The type of counselling and psychotherapy I use offers a structured opportunity to work out how we want to live our lives; understand ourselves better; think new thoughts; acknowledge feelings; face fears and become more skillful.
It is useful to identify whether you are dealing with something specific or a more general questioning 'what's this about' 'what's going on' 'why do I keep doing this'. This may guide us towards the style of working most useful to you.
During our meetings we will talk with each other, I will listen to you.
If you find it useful we can use prompts such as photos and objects that have meaning for you.
For some people talking is a way to explore their experience, for others it is uncomfortable and difficult, other ways are easier.
For times when we are stuck in repetitive thinking drawing, writing and other exercises may offer ways of expressing other ideas. We could use some of these - only if you want to.
Depending on how you best organise your thoughts we may design ways of visual planning like charts, diagrams and mindmaps.
When you are focussed on managing specific situations more skillfully, I may introduce practical tasks and specific techniques or consider with you how to refine your current strategies.
How we work depends on what you find productive.
We will regularly review what we are doing and adjust it where useful. Please let me know what is useful and what is not.
We will revisit the question - how will you know if this is worth your time, energy and money? what would need to be different from when we began?
Meetings are usually for an hour, if that is difficult for any reason we can agree something that suits you better.
Finishing Therapy
Counselling and psychotherapy are purposeful activities. Once the purpose has been realised, therapy ends.
If a fixed number of meetings or a time limit has been agreed, when to finish is built into that agreement.
For more open-ended work, when and how to stop meeting is part of regular reviews.
As there are different reasons for using therapy and different ways of working within it, there are also different options for finishing. You can:
- decide that it is nearly time and agree a small number of further meetings.
- decide on a fixed date to end (often tied into the timing of other events)
- decide to stop with a review meeting booked in some time ahead
or
sometimes it just feels right to stop.
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