Starting out.
There's no wrong foot.

The therapeutic relationship is different to the one you might have with family or colleagues.

Professional counselling is about mutual respect and creating a space where we can discuss hard issues with honesty. Your current feelings and perceptions are always valued in conversation – they are the clues to defining and achieving success in therapy.

Discussions never leave the room; judgmental observations or feeling under pressure to ‘perform' in sessions is not helpful in creating productive outcomes. More useful is the shared understanding of your experience and your history. Each session is a chance to talk, reflect, and discover. Understanding the origins of behaviours and your current feelings helps in restoring your internal organisation and your effectiveness.

The chance to focus on our own needs for a couple of hours a week can feel like finding an oasis. Sessions are a moment of refuge – away from the relentless demands of the day – and an investment in discovering and developing new skills for managing life. Shifting our attention from the demands of others at work or home allows the time to concentrate on building our own emotional strength and balance. Finding new strength and balance is pivotal in restoring pleasure and the motivating spirit to our work and our relationships.

The first few meetings.

Therapy is a new experience for many. The earliest meetings are about getting to know each other and you deciding if you're comfortable with your choices. In about three sessions we'll both know if there's a mutual basis for a good, practical working relationship.

It's also a period to explore what you want to achieve – and a timeframe for success in the context of a professional diagnosis. Listening to the issues that surface over these early weeks gives us a chance to discuss the best ways to help you succeed.

The key is efficiency matched with progress. It's a matter for mutual review, remembering that sometimes issues and problems have formed over many years. And old habits, as we know, die hard.

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