FAQ

 

What can Psychotherapy help with?

You don’t need to be in crisis or have a diagnosed mental illness to have psychotherapy. It can help you with emotional or mental health concerns, including:

  • anxiety

  • feeling like you can’t cope

  • problems dealing with stress or recovering from stressful situations

  • lack of confidence or extreme shyness

  • coping with the effects of abuse

  • feelings of depression, sadness, grief or emptiness

  • extreme mood swings

  • difficulty making or sustaining relationships, or repeatedly becoming involved in unsatisfying or destructive relationships

  • sexual problems

  • difficulties coming to terms with losses such as bereavement, divorce or unemployment

  • eating disorders

  • self-harm

  • obsessive behaviour

  • panic attacks and phobias

This is not an exclusive list - clients may come to Psychotherapy with multiple and wide ranging issues. You can find an extensive list in the Psychotherapy section.

How do I choose a therapist?

There are many different types of therapists and modalities - choosing to work with someone can sometimes feel like a daunting task. I would advise working with a therapist who is registered or accredited by a professional regulatory body, of which the two main ones in the UK are the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) and the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). These therapists commit to a Code of Ethics and Professional Practice which provides boundaries for you and your psychotherapist, which are important in building a professional, trusting relationship.

You may wish to think about some practical considerations such as location, cost, availability, specialisms/experience, specific qualities - eg, gender, cultural background, age, etc.

What happens in the first session?

In the first session we would discuss your difficulties and what brings you to therapy. We would also talk about your expectations/goals, if you happen to know what they may be. It is an opportunity to gather information and context about you and your life - we may discuss your homelife, work, key relationships/network, family constellation, childhood, health/mental health history.

The initial session is a two-way process to find out if we could work together and for you to ask any questions about therapy.

How often do I attend?

I offer weekly sessions as standard, especially at the start of therapy because I believe this is important to build a good therapeutic relationship. I occasionally offer fortnightly sessions but this depends very much on our work together over time - this is something we would negotiate together.

How long will therapy last?

Psychotherapy can be short or long term - some clients prefer to agree upon a number of sessions and then have periodic reviews if they’d like to extend further; some clients prefer to keep therapy long-term and open-ended. Private psychotherapy gives you flexibility to decide whether you would like to engage in a shorter or longer term contract and is dependent on what you would like to work on, and the depth and complexity with which we work together. It’s unusual for therapy to last for less than six sessions and sometimes may continue for two years or more.

What’s the difference between a Psychotherapist, Counsellor, Psychologist and Psychiatrist?

The way psychotherapists and counsellors work can overlap - both use talking therapy to help someone tackle an emotional difficulty but the training for Psychotherapy is longer and more in-depth. Counsellors tend to work with clients around a specific issue or difficulty within a shorter time frame. Psychotherapists often work in a more organic & free-form way over a longer period of time.

Psychologists and psychiatrists are different. Psychiatrists are medical doctors that diagnose illness, prescribe medication, manage treatment and provide a range of therapies for serious mental illness. Psychotherapy does not provide these functions although we do work with clients that may have a diagnosed mental illness/see Psychiatrists or Mental Health teams.

Psychologists have a degree in Psychology and work in schools, hospitals, care homes, prisons, as well as private practice. They work to understand people’s behaviour and address psychological distress using clinical & evidence based interventions (eg, CBT.) One way to think about it is that psychology is the study of the mind, and psychotherapy is about applying insights from psychology to help people in a relational way.

A psychotherapist may also be a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other mental health professional who has done additional training in psychotherapy.