First appointment
The first step is to arrange a time and venue for an initial consultation (sometimes called an assessment).
This a chance for us to meet. I can find out more about your situation and you can ask any questions you might have.
We will discuss the matters you would like to focus on and your hopes for therapy, and I will offer a suggestion for how we might proceed. We will also discuss practical arrangements, such as time, venue and frequency of appointments. In general, I offer counselling on a weekly basis at a set time and venue.
Number of appointments
Once we have completed an assessment and agreed to proceed, I will usually suggest we begin with six appointments.
In the case of short-term therapy, six appointments might be enough to make significant progress with a specific topic or issue.
These first appointments also provide us with a chance to explore how we can best work together – we can look together at what is helpful and what is not so helpful.
After six appointments, you might decide you would like to continue, whether for a set number of appointments or on an open-ended basis.
Open-ended or long-term therapy is useful for looking at an issue from all angles and will involve going deeper into your life situation as a whole.
sami Almutairi