What to expect
Once your initial appointment is made, you will have the same time and day every week. We will go through a contract together, and this needs to be signed before counselling begins.
I offer open-ended counselling but review after six sessions. Each session is 50 minutes, and my fees are £70 per session.
After a few sessions, you might feel overwhelmed, or confused. This is a natural process of change as your layers of emotions rise to the surface, and perspectives begin to shift. You are simply moving into a different way of being, a whole new emotional landscape. Trust whatever you are feeling as they will eventually lead to insights which help your understanding, which in turn leads to self-awareness and self-acceptance. With awareness comes the ability to make different choices.
I highly recommend a daily journal when going through the counselling process. A journal is not the same as a diary. Rather it is more of a workbook on you, and it will help you develop your emotional vocabulary. See it as a private space where you can be brutally honest with your Self and your emotions. See it as a safe space where you can express your truth and keep whatever you have learned about yourself. During the counselling process, a lot of stuff may come up that doesn’t make sense in the moment. A journal is where you can safely put these thoughts and feelings down, so you can gain insight into patterns of behaviour you might want to change. The counselling process will kick up a lot of dust that may or may not make sense at the time but will later.
I use a lot of imagery in my practice, and some clients find it easier to keep a visual journal when they can’t articulate their emotions in words. Colour, shape, form, and symbols are just another language, so use whatever works for you.
It’s not all doom and gloom in my counselling sessions. Rather they are lively, heart-warming, energising, emotional, humane, and on occasion hysterically funny. Through counselling, you’ll learn to honour your Self.
“To be ourselves causes us to be exiled by many others, and yet to comply with what others want causes us to be exiled from ourselves.”
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes
