EMDR therapy and counselling for trauma and PTSD
Starting therapy can feel like a big step, and it’s completely normal to wonder what that initial therapy consultation will actually involve. You might be wondering what you’ll be asked, how much you’ll need to share or whether you’ll be expected to explain everything that has brought you to counselling.
I want to reassure you that there’s no need to arrive with everything figured out. Your first session is an opportunity for us to begin getting to know each other, talk about what has brought you to therapy and explore what you might need from our work together.
It’s about starting to build a picture together of where you are now, what you’ve been through and where you’d like things to be different.
If you’ve had therapy before, we’ll spend some time talking about your experience of it. This isn’t simply about gathering background information. Understanding what felt helpful, what didn’t and what you would like to be different this time can help us create an approach that feels right for you.
You may have had a really positive experience of previous therapy, or you may have come away feeling that something was missing. Perhaps you felt understood but didn’t feel that things changed in the way you had hoped. Or perhaps you gained valuable insight but were left wondering what to do with it.
There’s no right or wrong experience to bring with you. Being open about what worked and what didn’t gives us a useful starting point and helps me understand what you’re looking for from therapy now.
It can also be helpful to talk about what you’ve learned from previous therapy. Sometimes people come away with a clearer understanding of their patterns or difficulties. At other times, therapy can leave you with more questions than answers. Either way, we can use what you already know as a starting point rather than beginning completely from scratch.
I want to reassure you that in your initial consultation we won't be going into lots of detail about historic traumas or painful events. There’s a good reason for this. Talking in depth about difficult experiences before we’ve had a chance to build trust and a sense of safety can sometimes leave you feeling overwhelmed or exposed. The first session is about beginning that process, not asking you to revisit everything that has happened to you.
If there’s something you feel is important for me to understand, you’re welcome to give me a brief overview. You can share as much or as little as feels comfortable, giving me enough context to understand what you’re dealing with without needing to tell the whole story straight away.
There will be time to go into more depth together, but that will always happen at a pace that feels manageable for you, not because a first session demands it.
Another key part of our first session together is talking about what you'd like to get out of therapy. It might sound like an obvious question, but it's one worth exploring, because 'feeling better' can mean different things to different people.
Are you hoping to understand yourself more deeply, manage specific symptoms, work through a particular event, or change patterns that keep showing up in your life? Understanding your goals also helps me work out whether the way I practise aligns with what you're looking for, and just as importantly, whether that fits with how you'd like to work too.
Having a sense of your goals, even a rough or evolving one, gives our work direction and helps us both notice progress along the way. It also means therapy stays focused on what matters to you, rather than drifting without a clear purpose. And if your goals shift as we go, that's completely normal too, we can revisit and adjust them together as therapy unfolds.
We'll also talk about how often we'll meet and length of sessions, because this shapes how we approach the work together. If sessions are time-limited, we'll need to decide together where to focus. Sometimes it can be difficult to know where to begin, particularly when several things are weighing you down. Part of our work together is making sense of what feels most important and finding a starting point that feels manageable, rather than trying to tackle everything all at once.
For some people, condensing sessions into an EMDR intensive might be a better fit, and if that's something you're considering we can explore together what that could look like. Financial considerations are also worth discussing openly, if there are limitations on how many sessions are affordable, that's useful for me to know early on. We can explore an approach to therapy that feels realistic and sustainable for you.
Therapy is a two-way process, so the initial therapy consultation is an opportunity for you to decide whether I feel like the right therapist for you. Please feel free to ask questions you have about my way of working, qualifications, training or my previous experience. These are all completely fair questions when you're deciding who to trust with something so personal.
You might also be curious about what the therapy journey with me looks like in practice, how sessions tend to flow, what to expect early on, or how we'll know things are progressing. If you’re considering EMDR therapy, you may also find it helpful to read my complete guide to EMDR therapy which explains how EMDR works, what you can expect from treatment and some of the questions you may have before getting started.
If something's on your mind, I'd genuinely encourage you to ask it. Feeling informed and comfortable with who you're working with is an important part of therapy working well.
An initial consultation isn’t about having all the answers or telling me everything that has happened to you. It’s simply the beginning of a conversation. We can start with where you are now, without you needing to have everything figured out first.
By the end of the session, we’ll hopefully have a clearer sense of what has brought you to therapy, what you’d like help with and how we might work together. You’ll also have had the opportunity to ask questions and get a feel for whether I’m the right therapist for you.
There’s no pressure to make a decision straight away, you're welcome to take your time and think about whether therapy with me feels like the right fit.
Finding a therapist you feel safe, understood and comfortable with is an important part of the process. If you’re unsure what to look for in a therapist, my guide on how to choose the right therapist explores some of the things you may want to consider when making that decision.
