WHAT IS PSYCHOTHERAPY?
Psychotherapy is a gentle, supportive and often subtle process of exploration through dialogue, that allows the client to safely access a deeper level of self-awareness than is usually possible alone, facilitating deep healing and personal growth where it is needed.
The psychotherapy relationship aims to support the whole person and typically engages with with multiple aspects a person's experience. There can be specific or more general aims. Psychotherapy can perhaps best be viewed as a creative partnership: the relationship between therapist and client is the medium through which learning and development takes place. As mutual trust and understanding grows, it becomes increasingly possible to explore aspects of experience that are painful, confusing or hard to verbalise and to try to make sense of them.
The psychotherapist usually remains open to the client's viewpoint, rather than bringing their own, and this kind of interaction can feel strange and unfamiliar initially; however, allowing the client's perspective to take centre stage means their inner world can be better recognised, reflected upon and explored. Anything can be discussed in psychotherapy. The practice of speaking, observing and reflecting on one's life in a place of safety, without judgement or fear of repercussion, allows defences to be overcome and a clearer sense of oneself as a whole can begin to emerge.
Relationally-based integrative psychotherapy uses a variety of theoretical approaches and adapts to best suit clients' needs. The client is respected as an equal, as human, and as the expert on themselves.
Developmental psychology and neuro-psychoanalytic understandings can help clients think afresh about their own childhoods and histories and update the conscious or unconscious narrative understandings they may hold around their families of origin, significant relationships and subsequent life events. Finding space and support for re-telling one's own story in this way, taking account of social and familial context, and contemporary research-based understandings of personality development, can help heal and integrate old traumas and bring a new sense of certainty around personal identity.
A central psychoanalytically-informed psychotherapeutic aim is to identify conscious and unconscious beliefs and strategies for dealing with relationships, especially where these become noticeable in the therapeutic relationship itself. The therapist offers the client a safe, supportive and accepting relationship to 'play' in, where dynamics can be discussed, and alternative ways of being in relationships can be explored.
Work moves at a pace and in a direction dictated by the client. What is needed from the therapeutic relationship may take time to emerge or change over time.
BENEFITS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychotherapy is not focussed on treating specific disorders but rather on supporting people to develop a stronger sense of self awareness and agency and to help improve their relationships with others in the world around them.
People often come to therapy because they are experiencing psychological distress, commonly depression, anxiety and related symptoms. However, anyone who is experiencing difficulty with relationships or with managing their lives can benefit from therapy. Psychotherapy can equally be helpful for people who are not experiencing crisis but are interested in developing more conscious awareness of their habitual relational patterns and ways of seeing the world and perhaps exploring new ways of being in relation to others. People engaged in creative practices and professions, managing families or operating in teams, engaging in life changing decision making processes or in entrepreneurial ventures large and small often find therapy useful.
OUTCOMES AND ENDINGS
Both therapist and client tend to recognise when things feel ready to come to an end. By this stage the client will generally feel more empowered in their lives, confident in their capacity to respond to difficult situations, better able to articulate their needs in relation to others and to meet others' needs in turn. People often have a sense of healing from traumatic experiences, and of being more at peace with painful relationships or circumstances. There may be clarity around important decisions and about priorities for life moving forward, alongside an ability to cope with a degree of ongoing uncertainty, Usually by this stage the client feels confidence around meeting the challenges to come without therapeutic support and the relationship can be let go.
If you have questions about whether psychotherapy might be beneficial for you, feel free to get in touch for more information.
PRACTICALITIES:
INITIAL CONSULTATION
The first session together is treated as a consultation and you may wish to meet several practitioners at this stage, to find someone you feel comfortable speaking with. Equally, I reserve the right to be open if I don't feel able to work with you for any reason. During this session I will usually ask what is bringing you to psychotherapy and try to gain a picture of your circumstances and history. Often it takes a few sessions to clarify aims and needs around the work.
LOCATION
I work online, via Zoom and use WhatsApp or telephone calls as a back up. You need to ensure you have access to good wifi connection and a private space where you feel comfortable talking for our sessions.
FREQUENCY AND DURATION
Sessions are for 50 minutes and I usually see clients weekly at the same time each week. Work is open-ended, meaning it continues for as long as you want or need it. This may be as few as six sessions to help you clarify you thinking around a specific challenge, but most people stay for between six months and three years. Some people remain in therapy for longer, and many return to therapy having taken a break after an initial period of work together.
WORKING HOURS, FEES AND EXPECTATIONS AROUND ATTENDANCE
My usual working hours are 9.00am - 5.00pm on weekdays and session times are by appointment.
My consultation session fee is £80.
My standard session fee thereafter is £125.
While in the early stages, commitment to working together may feel tentative, my normal expectation is that you attend weekly, or as agreed, and that the regularity of the commitment is maintained for the duration of our work together, over approximately 42 weeks of the year.
My fee is set with this expectation in mind and I charge for missed sessions, but if you give me reasonable notice I will try to offer an alternative time in the same week or a second session the week prior or following, to maintain the continuity of our work.
I take breaks at regular intervals, which are not chargeable.
PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS AND MEDICATION
I am not medically qualified and I do not prescribe medication or diagnose psychological conditions. However, I do work with clients who have received psychiatric diagnoses and/or use medication and in many cases psychotherapy is compatible with psychiatric treatment.
Psychotherapy with an independent practitioner online is not appropriate on its own where someone is actively psychotic or suicidal, when addiction is severe or where the client is using violence, but can be undertaken in some cases as additional support alongside engagement with specialist services. There may need to be variations to my usual confidentiality agreement in these circumstances.
PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING AND STRUCTURED TREATMENT MODALITIES
As a relationally-oriented practitioner, I do not use tests, questionnaires or structured approaches to treatment, either as prompts for dialogue or to track progress within sessions. Rather, I aim to support autonomous self-reflection and personally meaningful development, tolerating the degree of uncertainty that is present in an undirected process. By allowing space for whatever arises, whether spontaneously or at the client's choosing, areas of importance soon become evident to both me and client.
If you feel you would prefer a more directed, outcome-oriented, or structured approach to managing your symptoms, a CBT (Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy) practitioner may be more appropriate for you.
DRUGS, ALCOHOL AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Many people self-medicate or manage their emotions using drugs, alcohol, food or other activities or substances. I encourage open and honest discussion around these areas so that the role substances play in clients' lives can be properly explored and understood within the wider context.
I do not condone or condemn use, but weekly relationally-oriented psychotherapy may not be effective where substance use is heavy or disruptive, and specialised treatments for addiction or eating disorders may need to be in place first.
CONFIDENTIALITY AND ETHICS
All sessions are strictly confidential. I will only break confidentiality if I believe there is a specific and imminent danger to you or someone else, or if required to do so by court order. Even in these circumstances I would talk to you beforehand so that nothing discussed in sessions is disclosed to others without your knowledge. All correspondence is handled by me directly, minimising the risk of any data breach.
I abide by the Code of Ethics of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).
My full Terms of Service will be made available to you upon confirmation of an appointment.
