You can come with a problem.
We do not have to reduce you to it.
Therapy offers a place to slow down and make sense of what is happening—not only the immediate difficulty, but also the feelings, relationships and patterns around it.
You may begin with something that happened that week, a relationship, a decision, a memory, an image or a feeling you cannot quite place. Rather than following a fixed agenda, we pay attention to what begins to matter.
Some work may involve change; some may involve understanding, grieving, choosing or finding a way to live alongside what cannot simply be solved.
WHAT WE MAY EXPLORE
Therapy can move between what is happening now and what may be shaping it.
We do not need to decide in advance which level matters most. A present difficulty may stand on its own, connect with something older or hold several meanings at once.
WHAT IS ASKING FOR ATTENTION NOW
- A situation, feeling or relationship has become difficult to carry.
- A loss, choice or change has altered how life feels.
- A familiar response or conflict keeps returning.
- You understand what is happening, but cannot simply reason yourself out of it.
WHAT MAY BE SHAPING IT
- Patterns that recur across relationships or periods of life.
• Ways you have learned to protect yourself, seek closeness or maintain distance. - Feelings, needs or conflicts that are difficult to recognise or express.
- Roles, expectations and cultural contexts that shape what feels possible or permitted.
MORE THAN WORDS
There is more than one way into an experience.
Talking remains central to the work, but language is not always where experience first becomes available. When useful, we may work with metaphor, images, drawing, objects, imagination or what is felt in the body to approach something that is difficult to explain directly.
These methods are invitations, never requirements. You do not need artistic experience, and many sessions may involve none at all. Their purpose is not to produce something good, but to give an experience another form in which it can be noticed and thought about.
WHAT I TRY TO PROTECT IN THE WORK
A therapy room does not need you to perform.
CONTRADICTION CAN STAY
You do not need to know exactly what you feel, what something means or what you want before we explore it.
CONTRADICTION CAN STAY
Different parts of you may want opposing things. We do not have to force them into one answer.
PACE CAN BE NEGOTIATED
We can slow down, pause or return later. You can say when something feels too much or not yet ready.
DISAGREEMENT HAS A PLACE
You can question me, correct me or disagree. If something between us does not feel right, we can talk about it.
THINKING ABOUT BEGINNING?
You do not need to know where therapy will lead before you start.
An initial consultation is a conversation about what brings you to therapy, what you may be looking for and any questions you have about how I work. It gives both of us a chance to consider whether working together feels appropriate.