What to expect in and between therapy sessions

Talking therapy is not just “talking about your problems”.  It’s a platform for you to learn about all aspects of yourself and how your circumstances are impacting you.  Specifically, Psychotherapy involves engaging with your awareness over what is usually an extended period of time, building a relationship with your therapist to enable significant and long-lasting change.

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I am trained to help you express yourself and to delve deeper than would otherwise be the case, walking with you on your journey to help you work through your issues and to help you reach your goals.  Your sessions with me will provide dedicated time and space for this to happen.

 

Some clients like to come to the sessions with an idea of issues they would like to work through.  Whilst this is welcome, you don’t need to worry about having anything planned before you come to a session as I will work with you to determine what you need.

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Either way, it's my job to make it easy for you to open up, starting by asking questions about your life and what you want to get out of therapy.  You will always be welcome to ask me questions about the process.

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During our sessions, you will consciously and rationally decide for yourself what is wrong and what should be done about it.  During that process, I will share insights with you but I may also challenge you to look at things in a different way or to learn new techniques for reacting to events or people.  At times this may be hard or frustrating, but it will also be fruitful.

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Therapy can involve exploring difficult and uncomfortable emotions, childhood trauma and situations which continue to cause distress and impact on your everyday life and relationships.  This can be quite a challenging experience and there may be occasional or even successive sessions that prove to be quite challenging or tiring.

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We will not have contact between sessions but along the way you will get resources and tools that you can use outside of our sessions to support your journey.

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That said, healing doesn't have to be a 24x7 activity.  It can be healthy and grounding to compartmentalise your emotional work in the sessions or for short periods during the week and to spend the rest of your time relaxing and being present in your current life.  This time off from the heavy work will make your therapeutic journey more sustainable.  Good self-care practises are a key foundation of your work outside of our sessions and we will explore this in the first few sessions.