What is counselling and psychotherapy?
These are umbrella terms, which cover a range of talking therapies. While there are large areas of overlap between the two, counselling usually refers to shorter-term therapeutic support for those who are dealing with a particular difficulty or issue, whereas psychotherapy mainly refers to longer-term, deeper psychological work that may be more long-standing. The term ‘therapist’ is used to refer to both counsellor and psychotherapist. As a fully trained counsellor/psychotherapist, I am specially trained to listen and read non-verbal clues, which help me further understand what is going on for you better.
Trained to masters level, I am integrative therapist and practice a range of approaches including: person centred, cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic and solution focused therapy. This offers us different ways of looking at your issues and as each client is unique, my use of an integrative approach allows me to select insights and ideas from different models that might fit best to your individual needs.
What to expect from your first session?
I offer an intial 20 minute telephone consultation for new clients. The aim of this is to discuss your expectations of counselling/psychotherapy and how I might help you best. I offer a flexible approach to therapy, which gives you more choice and convenience in how you might access therapy. You may prefer to work with me using my secure online chat room facility, or through text messaging alongside an occasional face to face session; the choice is yours to try out and see whats suits you best and when.
Before your initial session, I will send you some client information which will help explain how I work and what you can expect from your session(s). These will include ethical issues, professional boundaries, confidentiality and anonymity. This first session is a good time to check out if you feel you can work with me, it is important that you feel secure and comfortable.
Once we have agreed on how we will work, we can then arrange how you attend your session, this may be via conventional face to face, zoom/face-time, phone, chat room, text or Skype. In your sessions we will explore your feelings, thoughts and behaviours in relation to the issues you may be experiencing. These may be causing you to anxiety, depression, anger or grief; emotions which we rarely chat openly about with our friends or family.
Your sessions are designed to give you the opportunity to help you make sense of your feelings in a safe and confidential space. As a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist I will manage and nurture our relationship, ensuring a professional duty of care at all times. For your peace of mind I work to a strict code of conduct and adhere to the BACP code of ethics, which ensures that our relationship remains confidential, ethical and professional at all times.
