What happens in therapy? 

Therapy helps individuals increase their awareness of themselves, their relationships and behavioural patterns and implement desired changes. The aim of therapy is to help people overcome the obstacles that prevent them from achieving their goals and enjoying life.

Successful therapy is based on a good relationship between the client and the therapist and together they will plan the therapeutic approach. The client is an active participant in therapy.

Therapists work in different ways and there is no standard form of therapy. I will try and give a brief description of how I work with my clients.

You need to trust me enough to tell me what is on your mind for me to be of help. Opening up about painful issues may not be easy and I will not expect it from you immediately. First, we need to build a relationship and you need to feel that you can trust me. Opening up, or self-disclosure, is essential in therapy. If I do not know the real issues that you are struggling with, I cannot help you efficiently. Opening up may be difficult because of feelings of shame, embarrassment, fear of rejection or because something is very painful to put into words. Therapy is not easy. It is hard work and requires courage.

During the first sessions we will work on what I call a formulation – a summary of what your difficulties are and our plan to address them. I use the formulation to clarify and summarise the information you have shared and to help us think about the history and development and different influencing factors of your difficulties. It also helps clarify who you are as a person, how you interact with others, how you perceive the world and your future, and to clarify the goals of our work. Similar to collecting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, it links the problems you are experiencing to the way they have developed and to which direction we should take to alleviate the difficulties. The formulation is a tool that helps us understand what is going on and what we can do about it.

We will also discuss and clarify how you wish to address your problems. Different people prefer to solve their problems in different ways. While one person enjoys written assignments, another may prefer exploring the existential questions in life. My aim is to work in a way that suits each individual client rather than trying to make my clients adjust to my way of working.

We will have regular reviews on how our work is progressing. I will want to know if you feel we are working on the relevant issues in a manner that you are comfortable with. During the reviews we will also revisit your goals and, when necessary, revise them. You are always welcome to initiate discussion on our work and your progress. The sessions are for you and if they are not helpful we are wasting both your time and mine. If this is the case then we need to reassess our plan and strategy. It may take time to develop a mode of working that we are both happy with.