Deciding to consult a therapist about your difficulties is a significant and perhaps scary step, so it is important to know what to expect. Here, I aim to give a thorough overview of the initial consultation/assessment but do ask for clarification if you need it.

practicalities:

The initial consultation is two sessions spaced a week (or thereabouts) apart. The first session is 1¼-1½ hours long and the second is 50 minutes long – the standard length of psychotherapy sessions. The first session is longer to give us more time to explore key areas (outlined below), whereas the second session enables further elaboration of key areas, as necessary, plus a conversation about recommendations and possible next steps.

It is useful to have a second session to allow both therapist and prospective client time to reflect on what was discussed in the first, and to see what has come up in our minds in the time between sessions. This might include thoughts and memories but also dreams.

Key areas explored in the first consultation session:

Although there are many overlaps, initial meetings are different from standard therapy sessions. They are more structured and the therapist is more directive and focused in guiding the client through the areas that need to be discussed. These include:

  • Hopes for therapy – what you want to change about your life and what has prompted you to seek therapy at this point.

  • Early life experiences, including your birth. These experiences can powerfully shape how we relate to ourselves others and the world now, so are important to consider.

  • Traumatic experiences – we won’t go into any experience in detail during the initial consultation, but it is important to acknowledge their presence at this stage.

  • Past experiences of therapy/counselling, if any, and what helped/didn’t help.

  • Your current situation with regards to important relationships and responsibilities (e.g., as a carer of young children or elderly parents).

  • Your work and home situation.

  • What support systems you have around you – therapy can bring up difficult, challenging, and painful feelings so it is important to think about how you will manage this outside of sessions.

  • Actions that put you at risk of harm. Past/present self-harm or suicidal feelings/actions are not a deal breaker regarding therapy in private practice but are important to think about together.

What the assessment doesn’t cover:

  • I am not qualified to make psychiatric diagnoses or diagnose mental health difficulties or advise on medication.

  • Similarly, although I am an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist, I am not qualified to diagnose a person’s attachment style. What I am more focused on is how a person’s early relationships have shaped how they experience the world through the lens of attachment theory, and how that impacts them now.

fee:

For the two sessions that make up the initial consultation I charge £225.

If you require a typed copy of my assessment, this costs £80.