What to expect from your first session

Counselling – Session One

Sometimes people may avoid going for counselling because they are scared, or don’t know what it involves, so I wanted to write a brief description of what I do with my clients on their first session.

On arrival, I will take the client through to my summer house, which is my counselling room. Hopefully this will become the client’s safe space for the duration of their session, a place where you can be heard, where you can be safe in the knowledge of confidentiality, where you can be free of judgement and where you can be 100% you.

Firstly, I’ll introduce myself and we will talk through the counselling contract, which is the details of confidentiality, my ways of working, and is an agreement as to how we will work together.

Secondly, I ask the client to explain what brings them to counselling and what they hope to gain from it. Anything that happens in life, can be the topic of counselling, it can be specific and about one topic, or it can be more about personal development or a broader theme.

From there we’ll just talk, make connections, reflect, look at everything you bring and work through it together. The foundation of counselling is that no one knows your life and you, as well as you do, and so the basis for your decisions and behaviour sits with you, counselling will help you to better understand why you do the things you do, or feel the things you feel, with this understanding will come the path to change.

Counselling is completely at your own pace, and it is completely up to you what you bring to the sessions to focus on, I may suggest things we can work on, but they will just be suggestions and can be discarded.

You can ask me any questions, not just in the first session, but at any time during therapy, about the counselling process, about my counselling practice or anything you want.

If you have any questions about the counselling process, please do drop me a message.