Individual Psychotherapy

Therapy is a relationship between you and your therapist with the purpose of resolving the difficulties you experience

Initial Contact

Make an enquiry either via email or via phone.
If there is availability, we will book an initial session at a time suitable for you
If there is no current availability, we will let you know and offer you a place on a waitlist with an approximate wait-time
You will be emailed with some intake forms to complete before the initial session.

Arrive at Douro house 5 - 15 minutes early to settle down; paid street parking is available.
Upon entering the front door, there is a comfortable waiting area; please wait here. Feel free to peruse the magazines provided.
When I am ready to see you, I will come to meet you in the waiting room and we will walk to the therapy room together.
The main focus of the first session is to form a therapeutic relationship with each other and to get a general gist of what brought you in
Try not to rush, the goal is to feel comfortable with each other and to get off on the right foot.

Therapy can be a longer process than many realise; the first 1-3 sessions will focus on understanding the difficulties and issues you are facing.
Once this has been done, we can begin discussing desired outcomes of therapy and how we can begin to grow in that direction.
This may include goal setting, treatment planning, and examining the issue through different focuses.
The pros and cons of each therapy approach will be discussed and agreed upon prior to commencement so that you have control over how you want your therapeutic journey to unfold.
Don't feel anxious about giving me all the important information at once; therapy is flexible and adaptable - assessment formulations will be adapted to include new information as the process unfolds.

This is the stage where we try to enact change by using strategies and techniques from the therapy approaches we've agreed to try
Usually, sessions will be fairly frequent while we are attempting to enact sustainable, lasting changes; approximately once a fortnight or once 3-weekly as an average.
It is common to feel 'worse' after the initial commencement of therapy; this is usually because we are focusing on your difficulties, which may cause the emotional impact to be felt more keenly.
There is no set time for therapy to "work" or for you to feel "better" - this is a different journey for everybody
We will keep track of the therapy progress periodically through the use of questionnaires and feedback.
We will also keep track of the therapeutic relationship using Feedback Informed Therapy approaches (see Frequently Asked Questions)
Setbacks are common in therapy. Usually this does not mean that anything is going "wrong"; therapy usually involves learning new skills. Making mistakes or finding ways that the new skills don't apply is all part of growth and learning.
Therapy also does not occur in a vacuum; sometimes things happen in life that may shift our focus or exacerbate your difficulties.
Remember, therapy is flexible and adaptive. If you feel that something is not working, we can discuss potentially switching therapy approaches or referring onwards if you would like to attempt an approach that I am not trained in.

This is the part of therapy where the desired changes have occurred, and things are feeling okay for you.
If you're happy with how things are going, we will have maintenance sessions to ensure that things continue to go well.
Maintanence sessions are there to ensure that we solidify the new skills/outlook that we have worked on, across different scenarios as part of life.
Sessions are usually monthly, and possibly stretching to once every 2-3 months if things continue to go well. This enables us to have some 'tune-ups' to make sure that the changes enacted are generalised and adapted to all parts of your life
If anything new occurs during this stage that you want to work on, we can shift back to the Assessment and Committment stage again.

This is the last stage of therapy!
This means things have been going well for quite a length of time, we're both confident that you'll be right.
We say our goodbyes, wish each other the best and you will graduate from therapy!
You can come back if needed; but if things continue to go well, rejoice!