What to Expect.
Welcome :)
If you’re feeling spun out or wrung out from anxiety, depression and its related emotions and problems you’ve come to the right place. Thank you for being curious about what I do, and having the courage to consider therapy - I’ll do my best to make it as supportive and straightforward as possible. I look forward to meeting you.
The four phases of therapy are: listen, understand, manage and change.
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LISTEN
Initially for the first couple of sessions, we will meet online, to discuss what brings you to therapy now, and what you want to work on. I will ask about your current situation and your past. We’ll then set some therapy goals and agree on how to proceed for the next 4-6 sessions.
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UNDERSTAND
Together in the early sessions we will map out the problem in a diagram (referred to as a formulation), which will then give us clues about where therapy is to lead us and which approach we will use.
The formulation is always a living document though, and will usually be updated and changed (and sometimes binned then rewritten completely!) as we discover more about what’s going on and what we might need to do to change it
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MANAGE
We’ll then come up with a plan and a selection of tools to reduce the impact of the problem. More often than not this is about learning to manage ourselves differently rather than “curing” a condition.
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CHANGE
From here, after the initial 4-6 sessions, we proceed to test out some of the hunches we have about the problem, how to improve things and make long-lasting changes.
Most problem focused therapy takes 12-20 sessions, but may need longer if there is more than one problem or issue that you want to work on, or if you want to explore your past in more detail. We review progress every six sessions to make sure we are meeting your needs. As the work draws to a close we will then devise a therapy “blueprint” for you to use in the future to keep your gains going. You can also schedule “booster” sessions as and when you need them.
All of this happens within a safe, boundaried, respectful and consistent relationship which is often the key to helpful therapy outcomes.
I am interested in what happened to you, not what’s wrong with you.
Don’t worry if all that makes you nervous; I am also playful, friendly, serious, grounded, vulnerable, collaborative, empathetic, humorous, intelligent and approachable. I am not a “blank-screen”, silent therapist; I do therapy with you not to you and we work together in partnership.
I will do my best to welcome you into the work by offering a warm, supportive, honest, thoughtful experience of therapy. I look forward to co-creating and holding space with you (including the awkward bits!)
Find out more about my values and approach.