Remote Individual Therapy

In the first session, the whole therapeutic process will be explained to you. We will work through a consent form together and then we will work through a few questionnaires. These forms will be returned to at various times in the therapeutic process to ensure you are feeling safe and contained in the process and it is working for you. We will then spend the rest of the time talking about you and what areas you think would be helpful to explore.

Future sessions are structured. We meet for 50 minutes a week over zoom/telephone. Sessions include interactive and creative elements: talking about what’s happening for you in the ‘here and now,’ detailed history taking, physical techniques such as mindfulness meditation and family sculpting exercises, developing behavioural experiments, drawing and writing tools, and setting homework assignments when appropriate to supplement the in-session learning.

You will be encouraged to take more ownership of the process as the therapy progresses, so that you learn to not become overly reliant on the therapy and you can recognise and give yourself what you need in the future.

Therapy sessions cost £98. Therapy is usually reviewed every 6 weeks to see if you are feeling safe in the process and if the therapy is providing the desired results. Accordingly, a group booking of 6 sessions (£540) is available and will mean a reduction of £48, instead of booking each session individually.

One concern for many people is that therapy can go on for too long and become too expensive. I offer both short-term and long-term therapy, and I will check-in regularly with you about when therapy should end. My aim is to empower you to be able to achieve your goals by yourself, so you are not reliant on therapy, it does not go on too long and you are not likely to relapse in the future. The idea is to slowly empower you, so that you acquire the necessary skills and are not left to fully take the reins by yourself until you are confident to do so.

Sessions last for 50 minutes duration. Generally, therapy sessions are weekly, but can be twice weekly or fortnightly if we discuss this and deem it to be appropriate. It is quite common for sessions to reduce in frequency when the client is coming to the end of therapy, this is to check that the client is fully able to manage these longer periods without therapy by his/her self.

There is a lot of research to show that the efficacy of online therapy is very similar to that of traditional face-to-face therapy for clients (see Anthony & Nagel, 2010). So, what are the advantages? In traditional face-to-face therapy you arrive at a location (office/home) and may need to wait there before you see the therapist. When it comes to online therapy there is no commuting time. Some clients note that it takes them a few sessions to become accustomed to the ‘therapy environment,’ this is not a concern in online therapy, whereby you are in a setting that you are very familiar with and you can alter the setup if it helps you. Furthermore, for those with busy lives, scheduling a traditional therapy session can be more difficult, especially if there are childcare considerations too. Another advantage with online therapy is that it opens up a wider pool of potential therapists to the client, instead of being confined to therapists who live locally to you, you have much more choice in finding the therapist that is right for you! A final consideration is the greater confidential nature of online therapy, nobody is going to see you entering/leaving a therapist’s office, and you are not likely to ever bump into your therapist in the community.

Anthony, K., & Nagel, D.M. (2010). Therapy Online: A Practical Guide. London: Sage Publications.

As a standard the sessions will be weekly in the same timeslot each week. Should a situation arise and you cannot attend a session, you will not be charged for the session as long as you provide 24 hours’ notice. If 24 hours’ notice is not provided prior to the session time, you would be charged.

Due to the remote nature of online therapy delivery, it is NOT suitable for those who are in Crisis. Therapy will regularly involve the assessment of risk and it will be recommended that you seek
alternate/further support from other services if you are deemed to be in crisis.