Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns...We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small.
Tara Brach
Making a First Appointment for Therapy
If you are interested in finding out about counselling or psychotherapy, please send me a message and include your email address and phone number. I will respond to your enquiry promptly and am happy to answer any initial brief questions you may have about therapy. If you then choose to book a first appointment, there is no commitment to further work at this point.
In order to book a first appointment, I ask that we first have a brief chat over the phone or Zoom, so that you can say a little about what has led you to seek therapy at this point, and also to cover a couple of administrative issues. I will then send you some documents via email with some more information about my services.
In a first appointment, you will have the opportunity to talk about yourself and what has brought you to counselling. I will also ask you some specific questions about yourself, such as information about your general health and well-being, and background information about you. This will help me to understand you in the context of your life. The purpose of this first session is for us to begin to get to know each other, and to assess whether we believe we can work together in a way that will be useful to you.
If you then wish to book further appointments, we will arrange an initial series of sessions (see Working Together)
Working Together (therapy)
I offer a range of appointment times for psychotherapy and counselling, including some late afternoon and early morning (before-work) sessions. I can offer time-limited and open-ended contracts according to need. All appointments, including the first meeting, last for 50 minutes. Ongoing appointments are at the same day and time each week.
After the first appointment, you will have time to reflect on whether or not you believe that counselling with me could be helpful to you. If we decide to work together, appointments are scheduled weekly, at the same day and time each week.
In the first instance, we can book an initial series of appointments (normally between 6 and 12 sessions). At the end of this period, we can review our work together, to see if the counselling is continuing to be helpful to you and also to consider any adjustments to how we work which could best meet your needs.
At the end of the initial series of appointments (or 'contract'), clients who decide to continue normally enter into ‘open-ended’ work, which means that your appointment time is open to you until such time as you feel ‘finished’ with your therapy. In ‘open-ended’ counselling, we meet on an ongoing basis, and may explore a number of different issues or themes. We will build in regular reviews to make sure that our counselling is meeting your needs.
(I can also offer ‘time-limited’ counselling – wherein we contract for a particular fixed length of time – if for any reason you are not able, or do not wish to, enter into an open-ended contract.)
Fees for therapy
In order to make my services accessible to as many people as possible, my fee structure is based on financial circumstances. The cost of a 50-minute session of Counselling/Psychotherapy is £60-115 based on income, family support and savings/investments. If you do make a first appointment, the sliding scale will be sent to you before the first appointment. All fees paid by a third party (eg insurance or company sponsorship) will be billed at a minimum of £80. Payment is by bank transfer, to arrive into my account before the time of the session.
Fees for supervision
Clinical Supervision is normally offered during business hours and scheduled fortnightly for 50 minutes, or monthly for 80 minutes. Supervision costs £70-115 per 50-minute session (based on financial circumstances, as above). Longer sessions are calculated at the same rates. If you would like to book an initial meeting to explore whether supervision with me could be helpful to you, please send me a message including your phone number and email address.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Maya Angelou