Frequently Asked Questions
What happens in the first session?
It can be quite anxiety inducing in the first session, as we explore a little about each other, try to find out what therapy might look like, what the therapeutic relationship will look like and whether or not this time it will work.
Starting therapy can be scary – but it needn’t be. I’m not here to judge, I’m not here to shame, I am here to be with you, to be present, to be a comfortable space for you to talk about whatever it is that you want to talk about.
You do not need to prepare, you do not need to have lots of questions or answers, you just need to turn up.
The rest will come as we work together to help you identify and achieve what you need.
How long is a session and are they truly private and confidential?
Sessions last 45-90 minutes (depending on your needs) are typically conducted online. From time-to-time (weather dependent) we may utilise local green spaces to enhance growth and engage in therapeutic activity – such as Mindfulness sessions at local parks.
Sessions are always private and confidential. Always.
Do you work with Neurodivergent conditions like ADHD and Autism
Yes. I am diagnosed AuDHD (Autism and ADHD) and I really understand the struggles that this can bring a person in their lives – I also know how it can affect clinical and healthcare, too, so I’m very ahead of the curve in terms of offering therapy for the Neurodivergent. I offer real understanding of the impact that these conditions have had, do have and will continue to have.
Not only am I very aware of the typical pitfalls and mistakes in therapy that is not modified for Neurodivergent clients, I also offer advice to people on their clinical journeys – such as advice when seeking assessment, criteria that services use to justify diagnosis of ADHD and Autism, and can offer step-by-step instructions on how processes like referral, intake, titration and shared care work.
I do not, and never will, offer medical advice or recommendations to replace medical care.
What even is an “integrative approach”?
I combine approaches,because my clients have reported that their prior experiences with CBT felt protocolised, being deeply impersonal and invalidating of their life experiences, feeling “squeezed into boxes”, “overloaded with worksheets”, “criticised for not doing what the therapist said”. “It felt like being back in school”.
This doesn’t have to be your experience. See what I offer below:
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is a psychological approach that helps people build a more values-driven, meaningful life by developing psychological flexibility. Instead of trying to eliminate difficult thoughts or emotions, ACT teaches acceptance—making space for internal experiences without letting them dictate behaviour. It combines mindfulness skills, values-based living and committed action to support choices aligned with what truly matters. By noticing and observing thoughts rather than fighting or debating them, people learn to respond with intention rather than avoidance, fostering resilience, wellbeing, and purposeful living
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
CBT is a very structured psychological approach that helps people understand how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours influence one another in “cycles”. CBT uses practical interventions to identify and modify (challenge) unhelpful thinking patterns to produce more balanced perspectives, and – through behavioural experiments – test new actions, build coping strategies, and reduce avoidance. Overall, CBT supports people to manage distress, improve functioning and “become your own therapist”. CBT excels in reducing frequency & intensity of Panic attacks, reducing nightmares and flashbacks in PTSD, fear in Phobias (including Emetophobia) and distress in breaking OCD patterns (“ERP”).
So how does combining them work?
CBT is very helpful at identifying cycles and can offer some very effective techniques – but CBT techniques are too often applied base on symptoms, rather than personality. As such, they can often be too shallow, ignorant of personalities and identity and can even feel downright humanising – this is because the techniques do not account for individual differences, wants and desires and all the other things that make us human. When misapplied, CBT can feel a bit like someone is telling you “just do it”, which may be a solution, but it doesn’t quite feel like the right one.
“What is objectively true and what is right for you do not always align perfectly, and this is the major drawback of CBT at times and where most people get stuck in therapy.“
ACT is much more person-based and focuses much more on a values driven life, than a lift of mastery over one’s emotions. Emotions and values are more “sticky” than thoughts which tend to be more free-floating and random. ACT empowers us to acknowledge that “thoughts are thoughts” rather than deep truths or untruths. When we acknowledge that they are “just thoughts” we can separate more easily from them. Thoughts that we are a bad parent or are failures or that there is something fundamentally wrong with us can be all consuming and can inadvertently be more reinforced, the more we try to challenge them. When we are gentle with thoughts, we can create space from them, we can acknowledge that we are not bound to them. We do not have to waste energy or time or other resources needlessly, we can let them in and let them out and
“it’s not worth constantly debating them
or trying to prove them wrong.”
