When you make contact by telephone or email, we will set a date and time for our first meeting.  I will usually be able to see you within a week or two of your initial contact.  

Our first session is an opportunity for us to meet and get a sense of one another, and whether we feel we’ll be able to work together.  I can try to answer any questions you might have, and you can let me know what brings you to counselling, and what you’re hoping to get from it.  It may be that you feel clear at the end of this first session that you would like to work with me, or you might need a few days to reach a decision.

If you decide that you would like to continue our sessions, we will establish a ‘contract’ that we both feel comfortable with.  This will make clear the nature of the sessions and the boundaries that we each will observe —  around confidentiality, cancellations, timekeeping, costs (there’s more information about these matters on the page titled ‘Things you need to know’)—  and will establish our commitment to working together in regular weekly sessions.  For example, we may initially contract to meet for eight weeks, and agree that at the end of that period we will reassess and talk about what will work best for you from then on.  It may be that you feel after that period that your issues have been addressed enough for now, or you may then decide to continue open-endedly.