Therapy
Beginning Therapy
If you are considering making contact it can feel like a huge step, but you will always be assisted to feel in control of the process and all questions are welcome. You can regularly review and discuss progress, the length of the relationship and what is working for you. There are never guarantees but I am dedicated to looking at the issues and finding a way forward together.
Sessions are £50 per hour but concessions for long-term work are available. A session typically lasts an hour and takes place once a week, but it can be shorter and twice a week, or even fortnightly. What suits you, and what you can sustain, is important - it really depends on what you need from our relationship. When you do choose to begin, the most important decision is that the time is right, the therapeutic relationship fits and there is a commitment to the process.
How will it work?
We can start with a phone call and discuss how things are for you. There is absolutely no obligation and it is very important you feel secure - even if we don’t work together I will happily direct you towards what might fit.
A relationship might be time-limited, where you decide on a specific number of sessions, or more open where we end when your aims are met. Perhaps you would just like a one-off meeting to discuss a difficult period that you’re in right now? That’s okay also, I will find time for you. Maybe the most difficult part is making contact?
I am a registered therapist with the BACP - the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists. This means I follow the BACP framework built around good practice and an ethical commitment to you the client. The framework ensures both client and therapist are kept safe.
“His life had been confused and disordered since then but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was.’ ”
“The relationship is the therapy”
Therapeutic Approach
Regardless of the approach, and there are certainly many options for people seeking therapy, the most important consideration for you as the client is finding the one that suits you and building a successful relationship with your therapist.
I am an integrative therapist which means I follow Petruska Clarkson’s Model, combining Psychodynamic and Person-centred counselling. Clarkson’s model blends from one talking therapy to another using different facets of the relationship. There are so many types of therapy - so how do these two work?
Person-centred therapy is talking therapy, it is about understanding your experiences and offering you conditions to identify and achieve goals that you identify - it’s about personally growing and having a meaningful, fulfilling life. It is unconditionally positive, it requires a genuineness of approach and a deep empathic response to understand what the client is really experiencing.
Psychodynamic therapy focuses on long-standing, often subconscious behaviours. By talking freely you will raise your awareness of early life experiences and relationships. Once your awareness is increased you can begin to develop insight into the roots of these thoughts, motivations and inner conflicts.