🌱   My aim in writing this blog, is that it reduces anxiety about starting therapy (as an individual, 1-1), helps build trust and provides you with some reassurance in knowing the details of how we will begin our work together. Appreciating that the process of seeking counselling can feel daunting, please know that I do my upmost to create an environment where you will feel safe and at ease.

🤙   Our initial contact will be a brief telephone or video call consultation where we meet, briefly discuss your needs and I will answer any questions that you may have. We will agree whether I am professionally the right person to support you in therapy, discuss our availability and arrange our first appointment.

📋   Before our appointment I will send you two forms to complete and return prior to us meeting; a Counselling Contract which explains all the terms and conditions for our work together and a Personal Details Form which provides me with your personal details and your life and relationship history. It also enquires as to your expectations of and hopes for therapy which we will refer back to review our work together to ensure it remains focused, helpful and effective.

🗣️ In our first appointment, I will go through your forms with you. Firstly clarifying the information in our contract including confidentiality, record keeping, session frequency and payment. Then we will go through your personal details form together. I may ask some questions relevant to the information you have shared around your relationships and life experiences. This enables help me get a good understanding of you and your life experiences and also what brings you to therapy at this time.

I will then invite you to talk (at your pace) often enquiring where you would you like to start? From here you decide what to share, you can go as deep or as light as you want and silence is okay too. There is no pressure to “tell your whole story.”

Instead of asking lots of structured questions or giving advice, I will listen very closely, reflect your feelings back to you and clarify what you mean. For example; “It sounds like you’ve been feeling quite overwhelmed and alone with this.”

This can help you to understand yourself more clearly.

🔚   Towards the end of our appointment I will ask how you found the session and whether you wish to proceed to arrange our next appointment. We may agree on a particular focus for our next session in advance but it’s also ok if you just need a space to offload and share what is happening for you between the time that we meet.

I do not have an agenda for how our time is spent, but my aim is to provide you with the support you need whilst facilitating conversations and explorations that are both helpful and effective in helping you manage better and move forward through whatever challenges, issues or worries you are facing in your life.

🤝   The most important part of therapy is to build a relationship and our first session is mainly about building trust between us. Our relationship is at the core my person-centred approach to therapy, where I will support you empathically and accept you without judgement, in a very genuine and human to human way.

🎯   Unlike more structured therapies, in talking therapy we may not set clear goals straight away. If they do come up, they will be in a gentle explorative form like “What would you like to get from coming here?”

But it’s also okay if you don’t know yet.

💭   What counselling can feel like (honestly) is clients often experience a sense of relief at finally being heard and they may feel some awkwardness, which is normal being in a new place with a person they do not know yet. Many clients are surprised at how much they talk, or don’t.

🚫   In our time together, I will not give you advice but will support and empower you to make the changes needed to overcome the challenges you are facing, and improve your life.  I will also not diagnose or label you. I will also not pressure you to open up quickly but will support you at your own pace.  The first session is about being heard and understood, not analysed or fixed.

If you have read this and would like to reach out for a free, no obligation consultation please feel free to contact me via this link: https://flourishcounselling.net/#contact