Do I need coaching or therapy?
The sections on therapy and coaching elaborate on their differences so you can have a good understanding of what you might require. When we work together, we might need to make new arrangements if we need to explore something through coaching (thus bringing more challenging questions to the front) or through therapy (thus bringing more healing and supportive elements to the front). In any case, always know that you will be asked, we will not go anywhere you are not comfortable going and I will totally respect your present reality and what you want to achieve or explore.
I booked a therapy session – now what?
The first session of therapy is an assessment. The assessment is done both ways, I will be assessing if I am the right therapist for you and you will be assessing the same thing through your own lens. This informal assessment will help me understand where you are coming from and what might benefit you in the long-term based on our interaction and your answers. As there are a lot of unknowns involved in the process, it is only natural for some mild anxiety or some uneasiness to be there. It is how we are wired!
During the first session, we will also do the contracting as it is called. Expect to discuss your expectations for therapy and what brings you to the therapy room. I will ask some questions about your background so that I can get a sense of who you are as a person.
Some more things will need to be discussed. The ethical framework that I abide by is the BACP one (the link is the client version) and we might need to discuss this in the first or second session. Other issues we need to tackle are: 1. our confidentiality agreement, 2. the 24-hour policy (your right to cancel but more than 24 hours before the session) and 3. the fees I charge per session. My current rates are at £80 per session.
How long does therapy last?
People are different, issues are different and thus processes are different. There is not one answer here. Usually, clients who wish to work on life-long issues might need to devote quite a bit of time on therapy. It is not easy to break behavioral patterns that have been forming for many years (in many cases since childhood). Those include pleasing others, not being able to say no, being harsh on ourselves etc.
Having said that, if open-ended therapy doesn’t sound appealing more focused approaches are possible. We can review progress every 2-3 months so that we can monitor how things progress.
The end of therapy is something that comes naturally when the client has worked through significant issues and feels that it is time to move on.
I booked a coaching session – what’s the difference?
Well, usually a coaching session is more focused on achieving something – a goal or a vision that the client has. As such, we will discuss goals more extensively. We will also put a written contract in place. This will help us to track progress and see any amendments we might need to make. Executive coaching fees are currently at £120 per session for individuals who pay themselves (self-funded and not sponsored). We will probably work for 3 or 6 months together.
Anything else I need to know?
Well, what we go by as Gestalt practitioners and therapists is to “trust the process”. And we might suggest this to our clients… Of course, this is something that is easier said than done. It might help you to think about therapy or coaching having some stages. Trust will be co-created by us in the beginning, then we move on to some actions and change takes place and then at some point we will need to organise the closure of this process. Like everything else, this relationship will have a beginning, a middle and an end – and we will learn together from this.
