During the Covid-19 pandemic all initial consultations and follow-up sessions are taking place online. This will continue for as long as necessary.
Frequency, Cancellations and Holidays
Therapy tends to work best when there is commitment and regularity from both of us. We will normally meet once or twice a week at the same time. It is sometimes appropriate for sessions to be more or less frequent than this.
Each session is fifty minutes; if you arrive part way through your allotted time, I will see you for the remainder of the time.
I work with the condition that you will pay the full fee for any session that is missed or cancelled. This allows for regularity of sessions, without which it can be difficult to enter the process of therapy. If you are away, I offer phone or Skype sessions.
In addition, I tend to have a break three times a year, in December, spring and in the summer; this usually amounts to between eight or ten weeks off a year. I will inform you well in advance of any weeks I am away and will try to give a minimum of 48 hours notice of any cancelled sessions.
Long Term
Long term, open ended therapy offers the opportunity to explore your feelings, behaviours and patterns of thinking and helps bring awareness to how your past may have had an impact on your current situation. It also allows us space to consider what kind of life you want and the ways you might be able to take action to build such a life. The sessions last fifty minutes and take place once a week, sometimes more, at the same time and place.
Short Term
Short term work is a minimum of twelve sessions, once a week, and will allow us to address a specific issue, goal or relationship. It will not work at the same depth as a longer or higher frequency treatment, but can be a good way of beginning and seeing if psychoanalytic work is for you.
Initial Meeting
In our initial meeting I will ask you what brings you to therapy and what you hope to get out of it. I may also ask about your history and relationships. This is also an opportunity for you to ask me any questions you might have about therapy, how I work, and to get a sense of whether I feel like the right therapist for you.
If we agree to work together, it is useful to establish an initial time frame even though this can change as the work unfolds.
Skype or Phone
If people are unable to meet in person on an ongoing basis, it is sometimes possible to work on Skype or over the phone after an initial face-to-face session.
Session Fees and Payment
I charge between £80 and £120 per session depending on the time of day and your income.
I will give you advance notice of any increase in fees. I review my fees annually in April.
I have a number of spaces for those who cannot afford my fees. Please mention this when you first get in touch. There is currently a waiting list for these places.
Location
Kentish Town
2b Gillies St, NW5 4DL