What to expect from therapy
The key thing to expect from therapy is understanding. We provide a safe and non-judgemental space here at ReImagine Therapy, where you can feel comfortable in exploring your difficulties. You can expect honesty and openness, and you will always feel heard. We will work together to help you to improve your emotional wellbeing.
You are also always in control of therapy, which means you can choose what to share with your therapist and what you talk about. Your therapist will ask questions and make suggestions of what it might be helpful to talk through based on what your goals are, but your therapist will never push you to share more than you are comfortable with. If you are receiving EMDR therapy, you will not need to share a great deal about the memories you are working with and you will be fully informed about what to expect during the sessions so as to make fully informed choices about your treatment.
Therapy can be a difficult process and your therapist will be there to support you through this. It is important to remember however, that both CBT and EMDR are collaborative therapies, so it is important for you to take an active role in them and feel ready to commit to them. This means that you and your therapist need to work hard together to address any difficulties, and this may include you continuing to work between sessions in ways that will be agreed in therapy, in order to help you to progress.
So where do we start?
Get in touch and we can arrange a free initial conversation over the phone. This is to see whether CBT or EMDR may be the right choice of therapy for you or whether another approach might be what you are looking for. It will also give you a space to ask any questions you may have and ensure that you feel comfortable- feeling comfortable with the person you choose as a therapist is really important.
We can then book an initial assessment appointment with your therapist. At the beginning of this (or beforehand for online sessions), you will be asked to sign a therapy agreement which outlines our confidentiality policy in addition to some other things you need to know about therapy. You will receive a copy of this in addition to a consent and disclosure form before your first session so please read this and think of any questions you might have. During this assessment, you will be asked questions to make sure that you and your therapist both understand what is going on for you and so they can gain an idea of what approach may work best for you. You will also have chance to talk to your therapist about what you want to work towards in therapy and anything else you feel that they need to know in order to help you.
After the assessment, your therapist can explain to you how the approach can help and how many sessions you might benefit from, so you have an idea of what might be involved and possible timescales. You can take some time to decide whether you would like to move forwards with therapy sessions and choose whether to book your next appointment to begin treatment.
The sessions are structured to ensure that you have the time and space to explore what you need to, and so that your therapist can ensure that they are helping you to progress through the intervention that will provide the skills and knowledge to make positive changes to your wellbeing. As CBT and EMDR are both short-term therapies, the aim is to help you to progress towards your therapy goals as quickly as possible. You and your therapist will regularly review where you are up to as therapy progresses to help with this.