The most important thing to expect from therapy with me is someone who will listen to you, and work with you to understand your difficulties, in a way that fits for you, and at a pace that feels comfortable. If you're new to therapy, then it would probably be worth spending some time discussing your thoughts and feelings about trying it - how it works, what you do, what I do, and any other questions you might have. My job is to be there for you and to use my expertise and experience to help us make sense of your difficulties together.

The way I work is something you and I decide on that together. Based on the difficulties or problems you're experiencing, I will offer you my thoughts on what might be the best way of working, and it may take us a few sessions to get to this point. All talking therapies are collaborations, and starting one way doesn't mean we can't change our approach later, if your needs or preferences change, or as the therapy progresses. My job is not to tell you what's best for you, but to help us work that out together. I will always encourage you to ask questions and to remember that this is your therapy, so you get to choose what we work on and how we work.

Finally, both my training and practice encompass a number of different therapeutic approaches, including psychodynamic, person-centred, existential, Transactional Analysis (TA), Cognitive Behavioural (CBT) and Cognitive Analytic (CAT) therapies. If these terms and abbreviations don't mean anything to you - don't worry - what they mean is something else we can talk about if it's helpful, or we may not need to mention them at all.