In the first session, your psychologist will undertake a thorough assessment of your situation. You will be asked about past experiences and treatment to better understand the nature of the difficulties for which treatment is being sought. You will be given an opportunity to tell your psychologist anything you think is relevant to your issue.
In the first session we will explain the basis of psychological therapy and how it works, and discuss what you can expect from therapy. We will also give you an idea of how long we think you will need to see us for treatment – the number of sessions varies with the type of difficulties being treated. You will also be given plenty of opportunity to ask questions, and clarify any concerns you may have about attending treatment.
By the end of the first or second session we will have developed a treatment plan with you that will include your treatment goals, and how we will monitor your treatment progress.
In subsequent sessions we will review what has happened since your last session. We will go over the aims of each session, we will monitor and inform you of how we think you are progressing, and we will spend time revising and/or building on the skills and strategies we are working on with you.
Between sessions, regardless of the issue you are working on, expect homework! Working on tasks in between sessions is a fundamental aspect of our approaches. It helps to bring the work you do in sessions into your day to day life, as well as consolidate the knowledge and skills you are going to develop around your issue, and ultimately, the more you work on in between sessions, the quicker progress will be.
