The first session of counselling can sometimes feel like a daunting experience. It’s an opportunity to talk through any anxieties you might have about counselling, we can explore what you might like to gain, and how we might work together to achieve your goals. I will likely ask quite a few questions to explore and gain an understanding of you and your life experiences. You can also decide from the first session whether you would like to book any further sessions. 

It's up to you how many sessions you would like to have.   You may find that you have achieved what you wanted to after only a few sessions, or you may feel that some longer-term work would be of benefit. Generally it is a good idea to explore in the first session any goals, or themes you want to explore in counselling - this might help give us a rough idea of how many sessions you might need.

Often the words ‘counselling’, and ‘psychotherapy’ can be used interchangeably and mean very similar things.  Generally, if you are seeking long-term care for your mental health, perhaps therapy might be a better option for you. Counselling might be used for managing short-term stressful situations. The most important thing to note is that I have an open-ended contract with my clients, which means that I won’t be labelling our sessions as one or the other, it’s a collaborative process – you decide what you might like to work on, and when you feel ready to end the sessions. I simply ask clients to let me know when they’re ready to end the sessions so that we can reflect on the work we have achieved.

I understand that there may be times when sessions may need to be rearranged if this done with more than 24 hours notice, no fee will be charged. However, if less than 24 hours is given to cancelling or rearranging a session, then the full fee will still be charged. 

Accessible rooms are available for in-person sessions. When booking a session, please let me know ahead of time, this is to ensure the room is available and booked for our session.

Everything we discuss in the session is confidential, however I am ethically bound by British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), which means there may be times where I need to share information if I feel that you might be at risk of causing harm to yourself or others. This also includes committing any offences against the law.