The Counselling or Psychotherapy Assessment Process

The first meeting is a very important step for both therapist and patient.

After you have contacted me, I will invite you to come along for an initial consultation. This will take the form of an assessment which may be completed in either one or two fifty minute sessions, as seems appropriate. There is a fixed fee of £45 per session.

During this first meeting, we will explore what has brought you to therapy now and your present difficulties. I will also ask you to tell me a little bit about your family background and relationships as well as any previous experience of counselling or psychotherapy.

If at the end of the assessment process I do not feel that my kind of counselling or psychotherapy is appropriate, I will make a recommendation for an alternative route and assist in finding an appropriate therapist.

If we decide that therapy is right for you at this time, we will discuss how to go forward from here. If counselling seems the most suitable option then we will discuss whether to work to a fixed number of sessions or on a more open-ended basis.

If psychoanalytic psychotherapy seems the more appropriate route then we will arrange suitable meeting times and proceed from there.

We will arrange to meet for fifty minutes on a regular day and time. An appropriate fee for a course of treatment will be agreed. All missed sessions must be paid for or rescheduled. All fees will be reviewed annually.

A preferential rate is offered to patients from Alney GP surgeries in Gloucester.

I am a registered provider with all the main Private Health Schemes.