How does therapy help?

Therapy helps with clarity, feeling steady or unstuck, as well as being grounded. It can bring relief.

Some specific skills therapy can provide are:

• Emotional management, including, but not limited to anger, jealousy, grief, and depression.
• Coping mechanisms to allow you to work through situations which typically cause you anxiety, fear, or avoidance.
• Stress-management techniques to apply to deal with stress within your everyday life, such as with your job and family.
• Skills and techniques to help you better navigate relationships, or to work through relationship troubles.
• Problem solving skills for you to enact when you encounter issues which may typically have caused you to shy away or back down, such as social situations or public speaking.
• Improving self-love, self-confidence, and body image.
• Improving communication, listening, and the ability to speak up for yourself.
• Understanding your own skills, strengths, and positive attributes and learning to quiet your inner negative critique.
• Finding a resolution to the issues that originally led you to therapy, such as having panic attacks, or being unable to sleep.

What to expect on your first visit?

Your first therapy session has two main goals:

1. Assess your circumstances

First sessions are designed to assess fit and clarify the core issues. We move past general symptom management to look at the underlying physiological and psychological drivers of your current situation.  A good first session should leave you feeling a clarity; an amazing first session will make you feel lighter.

2. Build a relationship

In our first session, I’ll get to know you, and you’ll get to know me. I will ask you questions to help me better understand your concerns.  Sometimes, I may ask for your history in terms of other events in your life, family, childhood, and career to help me comprehend. You are welcome to ask questions too. You can also decline to answer a question if it is too personal.  You job is figure out if you are comfortable with me.

Expect the following:

• You can expect to be treated with compassion, empathy, respect, and understanding.
• You can expect to be presented with someone who knows how to listen.
• You can expect clinical expertise and proven strategies designed to help you resolve the patterns that keep you stuck.
• You can expect to arrive in a safe, supportive, and confidential space.

Is therapy confidential?

As a general rule, all therapy sessions are confidential and anything you discuss with your therapist will remain between the two of you, unless you request otherwise. This is as per protection rules by law, which all therapists legally need to follow, and no information from the session can be disclosed without prior written consent from the client.

There are exceptions to this law however, and the therapist can disclose information from the session to legal authorities or appointed persons if any of the following are true:

• The therapist suspects abuse to a child, dependent adult, or an elder, or are made aware of domestic abuse. These situations all require the therapist to notify law authorities immediately.
• If the therapist suspects an individual has caused, or is threatening to cause severe bodily harm to another person, therapists are required to report it to the police.
• If an individual intends to harm himself or herself, expressing to the therapist for example, plans for suicide. While the therapist will attempt to work through this in the therapy session, if it appears to be unresolved or the client does not cooperate, additional action may need to be taken to ensure the safety of the client.