FAQ’s

Counselling and psychotherapy, also referred to as the ‘talking therapies,’ occur as a therapeutic dialogue between client and therapist. This dialogue takes place in a confidential, warm, and nonjudgmental atmosphere. While the practice of counselling and psychotherapy are similar, counselling generally refers to short term work and focuses on one problem area. Psychotherapy is long term open-ended work which focuses on patterns of difficulties and may address many problem areas. Therapy refers to counselling or psychotherapy.

Therapy is not a prescriptive process, but is tailored to meet your individual needs and objectives. Your therapist acts as a guide to assist you in exploring your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Within the therapeutic relationship, you will have a chance to express your feelings, choose new perspectives and ways of coping, and plan how to work towards personally rewarding changes and self acceptance. The therapist’s role is not to provide advice but to help you to find a way forward that works for you.

There is no problem too big or too small to bring to therapy. You may feel as if your current way of coping is not working any more but you are not sure what to do or how to resolve the problem. Some examples of difficulties people bring to therapy are:

The first session is an initial consultation between you and the therapist. You will get a chance to provide the therapist with the background of your difficulty and share your hopes, expectations, and concerns about the therapeutic process. The therapist can answer any questions you may have and together you can decide whether you would like to schedule further sessions. The first session is an opportunity for you and the therapist to explore where/how to proceed in working with the difficulty and for you to see if you would like to continue working with the therapist.

Sessions are approximately one hour long. Both short term and long term work are provided by the service. The length of therapy depends on a variety of factors, such as how many problems you would like to work on and how long you have experienced the difficulty. You and your therapist can discuss the duration in more detail during initial sessions and routine reviews.

An integrative approach to therapy is used. This means that a variety of therapeutic approaches will be integrated into the sessions to meet your individual needs. Our team draws on humanistic, cognitive behavioural, solution-focused, psychodynamic, and gestalt perspectives.

You can make an appointment to meet with one of the therapists by phoning the Albany Clinic at 01 6612222. We will contact you as soon as possible with an appointment. Alternatively, you can email one of the therapists directly by following the link in About Us.

Please contact us to discuss current rates.