What Happens in a Counselling Session. Counsellor and Psychotherapist in Wimbledon, London, SW19. counselling-help.co.uk

What happens in a session?

There is great variety in the way counsellors counsel. What follows will give you an idea of how I practice it so that you can decide if it seems like an approach that would suit you. If the information you want is somewhat different or it raises questions then do phone or write.

The whole of the therapy experience is for your benefit.

What may you expect of psychotherapy? It is a way of easing personal difficulties through conversation and a personal, professional relationship. Adapted from Anthony Storr (1980).

Part of the first session would be spent exchanging contact details. The level of fees, dependent upon your income, will need to be fixed initially. As a golden rule of therapy is that you say just whatever you like with the minimum of censorship. You are free to raise the topic of fees again anytime.

I will ask you to tell me what brings you to therapy. If you find it all very new and anxiety provoking, you can put off the most difficult topics until you feel more at ease. It may be that you will find giving me background information, which I will need, somewhat easier so you can start with that. I will ask questions if that helps.

Giving background information is certainly necessary and often it provokes new thoughts in the person doing the telling. Patterns of behaviour can be seen extending back over the years. The point at which they started is often significant. All the while, I will be listening carefully with the intention of putting into words the thoughts that seem just out of consciousness. When I have observed a connection between topics, say, I offer an interpretation of it, which we then go on to discuss. This making conscious the unconscious is one of the most important goals because when something is in the conscious realm, then it can be worked on in much the same way as you would any other issue. Our discussions can be free ranging and we may wander far from the original topic, coming back at the end to where we started, but now seeing it in a different way.

"It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top." Virginia Woolf (1929) A Room of One's Own.

The first sessions are a little more structured than those that follow. Normally I will leave it to you to begin a session to ensure that we are talking about things that are important to you at that time. You may wish to pick up on something that happened last time we met. Or, a dream you had the night before or something from a long way back, or an incident that happened during your journey to therapy. Of particular value are your thoughts about the therapy and therapist because another of the goals is to get a good working relationship with the therapist undistorted by things transferred from other times and people.

It is important to work at the ups and downs of the relationship. The downs often yield more benefits when dealt with (and are probably closer to the reasons that brought you to therapy) than the ups. Someone has said that most problems are relationship problems. So, being in the process of establishing a good working relationship (characterised by genuineness, empathy and non-possessive warmth) with the therapist, you are in a much better position to play your part in attempting to solve relationship difficulties elsewhere in your life.

"The most creative thing you do in life is the work you do on yourself." Margaret Stack.

Graham Huxstep

Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

Helping you explore problems so that you can decide what to do about them.

Telephone: 020 8946 2014

Last revision 4th September 2006