Our work together will be respectful and collaborative. One of my main jobs as your therapist is to create an environment in which you feel safe and supported to do your work with difficult issues. During our first couple of sessions, I will ask you to tell me about your life up to now, and we will have the opportunity to get to know each other. I will direct your attention to areas that appear problematic and suggest ways in which we might approach these issues, or perhaps shift perspective on them to look at them a bit differently than you have before.
As we progress, our work together will deepen as we discover issues that may not be accessible to us at the beginning. We will spend as much time as is needed to work towards understanding and resolution of issues as they arise. Therapy is not a linear process. There will be ups and downs as we work together, always with awareness of your experience.
During our first meeting, we will decide on a time to meet each week. Effective therapy requires that we meet at least once a week, for a couple of reasons. First, our therapeutic alliance will serve to contain the potentially difficult material that will arise as our work progresses. Second, there is a momentum that will result from our work together and will help to move our work forward. It is difficult to maintain that momentum if too much time passes between meetings. Our scheduled meeting time is your time and will be reserved for you. If, for any reason, you must cancel a meeting, please give me at least 24 hours notice so I can offer that hour to someone else.