My students remind me that, as in most professions, there is a sliding scale of professionalism once someone has qualified. It therefore seems important for me to quantify that what I teach and always aim for is a gold standard to fulfill this most important role of counsellor/therapist. I offer you a free, no-obligation assessment session where you can get to know me a little and ask questions, perhaps make an intuitive judgment as to whether you could share intimate details of your life, be vulnerable, and trust me to support you. I work within safe boundaries, my competencies, and with clear contracting before we begin so that you know what to expect of your therapy sessions and what I might expect of you. Your first session will include an assessment, which will include questions about your health now and previously, and I will note any medication you are taking, which can be useful if you are talking about your health, and I recognise side effects from your medication. I will ask for your GP’s details to be used only in emergencies. Our first two or three therapy sessions are usually where you outline the issues affecting your life, and we build our relationship and create trust. In private practice, there is no limit to therapy sessions, however, your time and money are often important considerations, so you can set a hoped-for timeframe of perhaps, 12-weeks, reviewing regularly as we go. Reviewing every three to four weeks is an important way to check in with you to see that you feel your therapy is going where you hoped, in the way that you hoped. If it isn’t, we can consider what changes might help. Kindness, compassion, unconditional positive regard, congruence, and empathy are the cornerstone of our therapeutic relationship, along with my professional facilitation that might include gentle challenges and the possibility of psychoeducation. As I get to know you, I might suggest creative interventions. Creative interventions do not require you to be creative, though you absolutely can be. Creative interventions allow you to engage with spontaneous reactions, connecting with thoughts and feelings that linger on the edge of your awareness, bringing them into focus, often creating lightbulb moments of understanding. Some creative interventions can also be an excellent way to express what cannot easily be put into words. Other creative interventions combine seemingly random opportunities with narrative, for example, picking a postcard you are drawn to out of a set and talking about it. Creative interventions have the potential to provide deeply emotional and unexpected responses. I always take care to pace your sessions so that you do not feel overwhelmed. I build in buffering time as necessary. This allows you to move to and from your everyday space, safely, before and after each therapy session. As we move towards your last therapy sessions, we will talk about how that feels, I might suggest apps or support groups that can help to scaffold you as you move away from our relationship. You might like to reduce your sessions from every week to every other week, and then to every three weeks as a gentle way to ease out of the therapeutic relationship. Another option is to end sessions but book a follow-up session in six weeks, so that you know that you have that opportunity to reconnect if needed. Read less