It’s often helpful to have an idea of what’s coming up, particularly when doing something for the first time. It can lower anxiety by making it easier to plan ahead. So here’s a 6-step guide outlining what happens when we work together, from the first time you get in touch to closure and what comes next.
Your 6-Step Guide
1. Initial Contact
It all starts when you get in touch.
You can either complete and submit the form on the Contact Us page, email enquiries@sussex-therapies.co.uk, or give me a call on 07918 901 654 leaving your name and contact details.
We will get back to you as soon as I can. This is usually within three hours if we’re open, or the morning of the next working day (unless you leave instructions for a preferred contact time). Our chat will last about 15-20 minutes and can be over the phone or online, whichever works for you.
Ideally, we’ll talk when you are somewhere you have good phone reception or internet connectivity, somewhere private where you feel comfortable to talk.
What We Will Talk About.
Our first chat is really an introduction. It’s a great opportunity for you to tell us a bit about yourself and what you would like help with. We will evaluate how we can best support you, and we can both start begin to get a sense of how we would work together.
If we can help you and you would like to meet, we agree a mutually convenient time and date for your initial consultation. We’ll confirm these arrangements with you via email, along with address and parking information, invoice and payment details, and copies of privacy statement, data security, and your contract should you decide to go ahead. There is no obligation to sign anything. We forward these documents to you so that you may review them prior to meeting, therefore allowing more time together to focus on what you’d like help with.
If we don’t think we can help you we’ll let you know straight away and will offer support with getting in touch with more suitable survices.
2. Consultation
Our first meeting.
During our first chat, we will have lightly discussed your situation and I’ll have told you know whether or not we can help. Subsequently, if we are able to help and you would like to meet, we will have arranged you first full one-hour meeting to discuss your situation in more depth.
This meeting will be your Full Consultation. It takes about an hour, and the information discussed here sets the stage for our therapeutic relationship, how we work together, and forms the basis of your treatment plan.
What we’ll cover in this meeting.
During your full consultation, we will go through:
Boundaries
The boundaries and expectations that exist within our therapeutic relationship. This is so you know exactly where you stand with me and what you can expect. Going through these clearly at the very beginning enables us to work together from a position of trust, because we both know what we can safely expect from one another.
Confidentiality
A full copy of our Confidentiality Policy will be provided to you ahead of your consultation. This covers the rules of confidentiality, the obligations therapists operate within that cause limits, and what those limits are. If you’d like to know a little more, click here to review our Confidentiality page.
Informed Consent
We will go through everything that involves your information, such as data storage, or the involvement of third-party professionals such as your GP. We will then seek your informed, written consent for each of these instances prior to treatment so it is clear what you give consent to.
A copy of our Privacy Statement and Data Protection Policy will be sent to you prior of our meeting. However, for more information, click here to view our Data Security page.
Medical History
We will spend some time going through your medical history. This is so that we can carefully review the presence of any potential contraindications, anything that suggests therapy, or certain types of therapy, may not be suitable for you.
Case History
Reviewing your case history and personal history is important because it allows me to gain a good understanding of your situation, the problem you’re seeking help with, and any contributing factors. The information you share will be used to conceptualise the issue you would like help with. This in turn will shape your treatment plan.
Welcome Pack
You can choose whether you would prefer this to be emailed to you, or given in a discreet, unbranded envelope. Your welcome pack contains;
- copies of all key documents,
- useful information regarding additional support,
- a copy of your contract,
- a copy of your informed consent form.
3. Confirm you’d like to proceed
Following your full consultation, it is advisable to leave a period of 48 hours before confirming you would like us to work together. This allows us both the opportunity to reflect on our first meeting and how you feel about working with your therapist. This time is also used to begin developing your treatment plan in preparation for our next session.
You can confirm whether you would like to go ahead any time within this 48 hour period by phone or email. Alternatively, if you feel confident you would like to go ahead, we can arrange your first therapy session straight away.
Once you have confirmed you would like to go ahead, and you have reviewed, signed and returned your contract and informed consent, we can begin working together. Copies of all documents will be given to you for your own records.
If we do not hear back within 3 days we will get in touch to see if we can be of any further assistance. If we are unable to reach you or do not hear back we will understand this to mean you do not wish to continue with us at this time.
4. Arranging appointments
Booking a therapy session
You can book appointments in three ways:
- By email.
- By phone.
- At the end of your session.
You can book a regular time and day, and between 1 to 6 therapy sessions at a time for as long as you feel benefit from us working together.
There are two payment options available to you. You can either Pre-Pay, or you can Pay-As-You-Go. Pre-paying is both more cost effective and time efficient for you, reducing the fee for each session whist allowing you to plan ahead with more confidence.
You can Pre-Pay a minimum of 2 sessions and a maximum of 6 sessions. As you can arrange pre-paid sessions for any available time within 2 calendar months, the frequency, time and day of your sessions fits round your lifestyle more conveniently. The full value of all sessions being booked is payable at the time of booking.
Each session is subject to our cancellation and refund policy, so you can book with confidence.
Opting for Pay-As-You-Go requires a deposit of £20 to secure your booking, which is deducted from the fee payable by your session. For example, if you wanted your next session to be Thursday next week at 11:00am, you would pay £20.00 when making the booking, and the remaining £30.00 before we next meet, making the total £50.00 fee for booking.
If you need to change the time or date of a session, or are unable to attend, please let me know as soon as possible. We can then either reschedule your session for a time that’s more convenient to you, or arrange a refund in line with our cancellation policy. You can view our cancellation policy on our FAQ’s page under ‘What happens if I cannot attend my appointment?‘
Making Payment
When booking your appointment, we will ask if you would like to Pre-Pay or Pay-On-The-Day.
There are two methods of payment available:
- By electronic bank transfer (the bank details are provided on your invoice)
- By cash (not available for remote sessions)
5. Your treatment plan and therapy
Your Treatment Plan
Following your full consultation and confirmation that you’d like to proceed, we will develop your treatment plan. This is flexible, regularly reviewed with you, and is based on the information discussed during your consultation.
The overall purpose of the treatment plan is to help you accomplish the changes you seek. This is achieved by:
- Identifying your underlying motivations and working with them. This helps you achieve your goals more quickly and effectively than relying on will power alone.
- Helping you stay engaged with your therapy and progress,
- Focusing our efforts on helping you achieve your desired outcome,
- Avoiding distractions in order to make your therapy more effective,
- Building a sense of accomplishment that boosts your self-esteem.
The key elements of your treatment plan include:
- An outline of the issue being worked on
- Identifying your therapeutic goals. Goals may broad or specific, and address the issue we are working on. Some examples of goals might be ‘coping with bereavement without relying on alcohol‘, or ‘feeling more confident about public speaking‘.
- Identifying any problems or difficulties that may challenge progress toward your goals.
- Outline effective interventions and supportive objectives. These are designed to support you in accomplishing your goals. Rather like stepping stones, each intervention or objective works with you and in progression, helping you reach your desired outcome. These may take the form of specific activities or practicing a new skills you’ve gained during therapy.
- Review. This helps to keep your therapy on track, and allows for any amendments that may be necessary.
Your Therapy Sessions
At the beginning of your first therapy session, we will discuss your treatment plan so you can have a clear idea of how we’ll be working towards your goals. This is also a good opportunity to answer any questions you have and check that you’re comfortable in how we’ll proceed.
Your treatment plan is yours and it is fluid, if anything comes up for you that you would like to work on, it can be amended to support you whilst keeping overview of your goals and an appreciation that these may change.
6. Continuation / Closure
Toward the end of your treatment plan, we will discuss how many therapy sessions are left and your thoughts regarding your progress so far. Having an opportunity to reflect on your progress is important because it allows opportunities for empowerment as well as time to identify any further areas you would like to explore.
By this time, most people have some idea of how they’re feeling and what they want to do next in their therapeutic journey. This can vary considerably from one person to another. Some people feel ready to close therapy, whilst others want to deepening their work or considering exploring other areas of their experience. It may also be the case that, having achieved your initial goals you feel ready to take on something else.
Sharing these reflections enables us to work together and plan your next steps, During this phase, we will work together to map out what comes next for you, whether that’s closure, extension, creating a new treatment plan to support new areas of exploration or new goals, or onward referral. What ever comes next, we will support you in taking those steps.
