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After contacting us you will be offered a low cost assessment appointment. There is no obligation to continue with therapy after your assessment appointment.

What will happen at the assessment?

The assessment appointment is a chance for you to meet your therapist, discuss your needs and your goals. This is helpful in deciding whether you agree with their approach, whether you are comfortable with them and whether you want to proceed with ongoing appointments. 

Your therapist will introduce themselves to you and will also ask about your hopes and goals for therapy, which ‘problems’ you wanted to address and take some background information. This is a good time for your therapist to explain their approach to you and answer any questions you might have.

Your assessment appointment is not a ‘therapy session’ but instead an opportunity for you and your therapist to gain some information, and for you to decide whether you are comfortable with them.

What are my options after the assessment?

You and your therapist will discuss goals and treatment options that work best for you. Some possibilities might be short vs long term therapy, focussing on immediate goals vs exploring your existing patterns and how they were developed, etc. It is important that the therapeutic approach and agreed therapy contract is meaningful to you.

How do therapy sessions work?

Therapy sessions will be a 50-minute slot offered weekly on the same day and time. This will in effect be your slot and will be available to you at all times, except for when your therapist is on a break. You will be advised of all breaks in good time. 

Your session is yours to use as you require and your therapist will keep your goals and preferred methodologies in mind. They will frequently check in to make sure that you are still on the same page and make adjustments as is necessary. There are no expectations on you to use your sessions ‘correctly’ and it is normal to feel some discomfort at the start of therapy as you get used to the setting and your therapist. Feel free to discuss this with your therapist.

It is normal for therapy to evoke some strong emotions in you and you do not have to worry about having ‘upset’ your therapist or having ‘said the wrong thing’. It is a safe space where you can speak openly and say what is on your mind without judgment or the fear of failure. There is no ‘right way’ to do therapy. The goal is simply for you to find benefit in exploring your experience or building new skills.

How do I end therapy?

You and your therapist might have agreed on a short-term course of therapy, in which case an end date would already be agreed. If you are however in an open-ended therapy contract or would like to end your short-term sessions early you can simply discuss it with your therapist.

Sometimes therapy can make us uncomfortable, especially as we may at times access deeply hidden emotions, and it can make us want to escape from the discomfort. This can be valuable to discuss with your therapist as this can often lead to important discoveries about our own defence and coping mechanisms, possibly clarifying another pattern in our lives. At times you and your therapist might agree that ending therapy at that point is the best option and you can agree on an end date that allows for a meaningful and mutual ending. The ending is very important in therapy as having a good ending that allows for a chance to say goodbye and to think about the work that has been done can help both you and your therapist.

You will never be denied an ending and the therapist will always follow your lead. If you however do end your sessions and in future wish to restart your therapy we cannot guarantee that your previous session slot will still be available.

Payment

You will be charged per session and payment can be made on the day using contactless or chip-and-pin. We accept Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay and Apple Pay. Alternatively payment can be made by BACS prior to sessions. Please see our contract in the Resource tab for guidance around how sessions are charged.