A Step Into The Unknown
Many people find the idea of coming to therapy or counselling a daunting proposition. Not only might you be opening yourself up for the very first time, you will be opening up to a complete stranger. Indeed this is a very reasonable and valid awareness; but what is also worthwhile considering is that the knowledge that the therapist is in fact a complete stranger, may have a liberating effect.
Once people have taken the first tentative step, they often discover that talking to a complete stranger can give them the freedom and relief that they may need in order to be able to open up. Knowing that what goes on during a session will remain always between you and your therapist, so that there’s no chance of anyone in your everyday life hearing anything about it, is a fundamental block in building up a trusting therapeutic relationship.
What is more, having a time to yourself and being listened to attentively may make you feel that you and what disturbs you is certainly important and valid. The pain people feel is more often than not the result of an unfortunate set of life experiences and is certainly not due to any ‘fault’ in that person for which they might be ‘judged’.
Indeed, complete confidence and trust is essential to the very process of therapy, the personal journey you make, which will give you an opportunity to understand how current difficulties and your past experience may be linked and which may lead to greater self awareness and personal growth and an opportunity to choose to have things be different in the future.
The First Session: helping you decide
The very first session is more of a consultation to help you decide if therapy could be helpful for you. It will provide a chance to talk about the relevant issues and more importantly, to give you the opportunity to meet me, ask any questions about how I work and decide if you would like to come.
Therapy sessions last for 50 minutes and take place on a weekly basis.
