Starting counselling

You may be feeling apprehensive about starting counselling, especially if you haven't had counselling before.

The first step is to send me an email using the contact button above. Let me know a bit about yourself

and your availability on Tuesdays (10am-5pm), Wednesdays (10am-8pm) and Thursdays (8.30am).

After you contact me

I will reply within 24 hours and let you know about my availability. I also will send you some further information about my counselling practice including practicalities. If you think what I am offering might be what you are looking for you are welcome to book a first session. If you have any questions you would like to ask me before doing this, I offer a free 15 minute Zoom or phone conversation. You can also ask any questions you have by emailing me.

Your first session

Your first counselling session will be an opportunity for you to tell me more about yourself and what is feeling difficult at the moment. We will then start to look at how you would like to use your counselling sessions and what you hope to gain from therapy.
If you are not sure about what to focus on in counselling we can explore this together. You can also share any concerns you may have about counselling.

What can I talk about in counselling?

You can talk about whatever you want to, there is no right or wrong with counselling.
Most people usually come to counselling because something is wrong and will focus on what is causing them difficulty or distress. This might be your relationships with others, recent life events, your academic study or job. You may want to talk about your current feelings or less specific things; your fears, disappointments and failures. You might be starting to notice problematic patterns in your life about how you relate to yourself and in your relationships others; we can explore these too.
What you need from your therapy might change from session to session. So, while you might notice there are themes that you return to it is always OK to say, "I want to talk about this today instead".
Talking about how your are finding your counselling is another important part of therapy. I will regularly check that you are getting what you need from sessions.

How long will I need to have counselling?

You will usually start to gain a greater understanding of yourself after a few sessions.
You will generally notice a more significant difference in how you are feeling and how you manage the issues that brought you to counselling after a few months.
The number of sessions you have is always your choice. You are welcome to choose to have a fixed number of sessions or work from week to week. We will review our work together after six sessions, twenty sessions and, after that, any point you choose to.

Finishing counselling

It might seem strange to talk about ending counselling before you have even begun, but it can be important for us to have an ending in mind as we work together, whether this is a few weeks, a few months or a few years away.
Where do you want to be after counselling? This is a question I ask in our first session so we both know what you are aiming towards and, most importantly, whether counselling is helping with this. It will always be your choice how many sessions you have and when you end.