Frequently Asked Questions

Qualifications

MA (Hons) Psychology, Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy), Post Graduate Certificate in CBT for Psychosis, EMDR Trained (Parts 1-3)

Fees

Free initial 20min consultation then £95 per session.

Times and places

In person sessions on Thursdays throughout the day at Clermont Road (Preston Park area of Brighton). Tuesday evenings online.

How do we get started? How often would we meet? And how long does therapy go on for?

We would start by arranging an initial session. You can choose to terminate therapy at any stage if that's what you want. I would normally suggest 4 sessions to begin to get an understanding of the difficulties you are dealing with and understand what might be keeping them going. This is also a chance to clarify what in particular you might want from therapy, how you might want to see things change. After that we would agree sessions in blocks and review things periodically to make sure we are on the right track, and that the approach feels useful to you.

Therapy can be quite short term if you have a specific problem you want to work on - e. 8-10 sessions. For other people they have a specific goal in mind, but there are more complicated factors keeping them stuck. In this case I might recommend 16-20 sessions. However, some people want a more open ended arrangement to understand themselves better, gradually over time, and address and understand various difficulties in their life. And in this case therapy may go on quite a bit longer. I will work with you to figure out what's best for you.

I strongly recommend meeting weekly, in order to gain momentum and make sure we are working on applying ideas from therapy in your life, rather than just checking in every now in then. That said - after a period of meeting weekly, some people benefit from less frequent sessions to help maintain progress and ease things off gradually. So this is something I often offer.

Therapy models/ approach

Clinical psychology training involves training in a variety of different therapy approaches. For example I make use of psychodynamic ideas in how I approach therapy, but I do not offer formal psychodynamic therapy. I particularly draw on CBT, EMDR and mindfulness based approaches, like compassion focussed therapy, in how I approach therapy.