If you’ve worked with a counsellor or psychotherapist in the past you may have clear ideas about what to expect from your first session. If not, here’s a brief description of what to expect the first time we meet.
When we meet for the first time I’ll welcome you and introduce myself. Then, we’ll need to get to know each other a little. We may have spoken on the ‘phone or exchanged emails, but I’ll be interested to find out more about;
- What’s hurting so much now?
- If this is an enduring difficulty, why begin to address it at this time?
- Is this something that I can honestly say I can help with? Or is there someone locally who may be able to help you more effectively?
You may well have similar questions. Like;
- From a ‘thought-through’ place – Is counselling the right tool to get this fixed?
- From a more ‘instinctive’ place – Does this process feel like it might help?
- Is Richard the right person to see about this?
And answers to these questions may become clearer during our first meeting. If we decide not to proceed I’ll certainly do my best to signpost you to someone locally who may be able to help. If we agree that we’re going to work together;
- I’ll say clearly how I believe I can help.
- There will be time for you to ask anything you need.
- I’ll explain how I like to work – and give you a written description of my approach to confidentiality, keeping in touch, payment of fees & cancellations etc. You’ll see that this falls within the BACP Ethical Framework.
- We’ll agree a fee and book dates for future sessions.
BACP have written a short guide about what to expect from a first session which I know that others have found useful. It can be downloaded here.