Will I be the right therapist for you?

Making a decision to refer yourself for psychotherapy or counselling can be a daunting task. Yet paradoxically, picking up the phone to call a therapist can also be accompanied by a sense of relief. When taking an important step such as this, you are deciding to make a significant investment in yourself where your time, energy and money are concerned. Finding a good ‘goodness of fit’ is therefore vital. In order that you can decide whether I would be the best therapist for you, it might help if I provide some answers to some frequently asked questions.

I adhere to codes of ethics and practice set down by the Northern Guild for Psychotherapy and Counselling and the UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy).

It is my view that before delivering psychotherapy and counselling services to members of the public, it is essential for practitioners to experience what it is like to be ‘in the client’s shoes’. By personally engaging in both individual and group psychotherapy for a period of 12 years, I obtained a deep understanding of both the challenges and benefits that psychotherapy and counselling affords.

Given that the practice of counselling and psychotherapy places therapists in a position of trust, I protect the clients I work with by routinely subjecting myself to Enhanced DBS checks (Disclosure and Barring Service). The aim of such checks is to reveal the full details of any criminal offences a provider may have committed.

I carry an appropriate level of professional indemnity insurance cover for the work I carry out with clients.

My clinical work is supervised routinely by UKCP registered psychotherapists with longstanding experience.

I maintain my professional standards by participating in an ongoing programme of continuing professional development activities; these including: Routinely attending CPD and peer led support groups; keeping abreast with what’s happening in the field of psychotherapy and counselling through reading current theoretical and research literature; routinely attending a diverse range of workshops, training courses and professional conferences.

I integrate aspects of the following theories:

  • Attachment
  • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
  • Gestalt
  • Human Development
  • Infant-Observation
  • Memory
  • Psychoanalytic Self-Psychology
  • Transactional Analysis

Most importantly I echo the view expressed by psychotherapy researchers Bergin and Lambert (1978) who propose that whatever theoretical approach a therapist uses the most important factor in determining a successful outcome in psychotherapy and counselling is the therapeutic relationship itself; this being the primary vehicle for revealing how early experiences underlie current problems.

The therapeutic relationship can be used to offer you a new chance at soothing past insecurities and fears, as well as becoming a safe context in which you have opportunities to experiment with new ways of relating.

The therapy relationship flourishes wherever you and I maintain a strong personal commitment to the therapy effort, when we communicate clearly with one another, and when I show genuine concern for your wellbeing. I believe that a trusting and supportive relationship between you and me is critical to a successful outcome.

If you decide to refer yourself to me for psychotherapy or counselling you will find me willing to provide you with a healing environment in which you encounter a relationship that provides non-judgemental acceptance, unconditional positive regard, emotional warmth, empathic understanding, gentleness, uncompromising respect, resilience and where appropriate, a good sense of humour.

In my relationship with you I will encourage self-knowledge, personal responsibility, self-determination and autonomy. I will also facilitate the recovery of three vital capacities; awareness, spontaneity and intimacy. I will be genuine, open and honest with you and with your agreement, I will share with you whatever feelings might be stirred in me as we work together.

The essence of a good therapeutic relationship reveals itself wherever you and I work together cooperatively in ways that enable you to achieve the goals that you will set for yourself at the beginning of your therapeutic journey with me.