How it works
From a message to a first session.
Most people put off getting in touch for months. Knowing exactly what happens next tends to help.
You get in touch
A sentence through the form, an email or a voicemail. I reply within two working days with a few times for a free call.
We talk for twenty minutes
Phone or video, free. You say what is going on in whatever words come. I say how I work and answer your questions. Nobody is signing up to anything.
You decide
Take as long as you need. If it feels right, we book a first session. If not, I may be able to suggest someone who suits you better.
A session
Fifty minutes, at the same time each week where we can manage it. In person, that is a quiet room in Reading, Berkshire with two chairs, a window and a box of tissues nobody has to apologise for using. Online, it is a secure video link from wherever you can be private, and a phone call if the connection fails.
You start wherever you like. Some weeks that is the thing you have been carrying all week. Some weeks it is nothing in particular, and that turns out to be where the interesting things are. I keep the time, I keep it confidential and I keep paying attention.
How long it goes on for
We review together roughly every six sessions, honestly. Some people find six is enough. Others stay for a year or more and work through several things. You can end at any time, and I will always ask for one closing session so we can finish properly rather than just stopping.
Online or in person
Both work, and the research agrees. In person suits people who want a change of place and a door that closes behind them. Online suits people with no spare hour for travel, or who talk more freely from their own sofa. Plenty of people mix the two.
Between sessions
I do not offer support between sessions, and I am clear about that from the start, because it keeps the hour we do have properly yours. If you are ever in crisis, the Samaritans are on 116 123 any hour of the day and NHS 111 can help you quickly.