How we will work together

Convenient Online Sessions

Contact me by email to arrange an appointment.  I will send you forms to complete and details for how to attend.  I will set up a meeting and send you the link to join. Videocalls are usually provided via a secure platform called Bilateral Base. This is similar to a Zoom videocall, with extra features for the provision of therapy techniques.

Concerned about the quality or effectiveness of remote support? Wondering if it is still real therapy? Read this post explaining various forms online therapy takes.

What to expect

The first session focuses on exploring your concern and to decide how we will work together.  I will be asking a lot of questions.  The reason for this is to gather information that may be relevant and help you to look at what is happening.  The purpose is to develop an explanation for your concern. We will work together to build an explanation about what has got you stuck, and what is keeping you stuck.

We will review this explanation together, checking that the psychological understanding fits with your experience.  We will then use this as the basis for a plan of action to get yourself unstuck. This may include a fixed number of sessions of therapy, coaching or skills training, depending on your needs.

Sometimes more than one session will be needed to form a clear explanation. On the other hand it may also be that a few sessions is enough to help you make sense of your concern and be enough for you to get back on course.

The connection

Due to the nature of online consultation, we share some responsibilities for making this a useful service for you. We will need:

  • A stable internet connection. We are reliant on the technology to have a clear conversation about what you need. We can assist this by ensuring a good, stable signal that is sufficient for online video calls.
  • We are likely to talk about sensitive and personal information, therefore it is important that we are both in a private space. We also need to be able to pay attention to what we are doing, so we also need to minimize interruptions.
  • We will be able to see each other and a small part of our environment. It is important to be comfortable, but also to maintain our privacy when choosing clothing and surroundings.

Interaction expectations

Due to the sensitive nature of our discussions, it is important to have clear boundaries on our communication. I have a professional Facebook page, which you are welcome to follow, but will retain a professional relationship and will not respond to friend requests or send personal messages.  ​In general, email is the most effective means of sending a message relating to services.

I use a secure email account, but the communication can not be secure unless you also use a secure email provider.

We will communicate via email to set up appointments and other basic administrative details. If you wish to send more sensitive information, or use email for consultation, advice or therapy, please ask me about this first.