Beginning the Counselling Relationship

Initiating a therapeutic counselling relationship for the first time, or with a new therapist can feel incredibly emotionally loaded. You are reaching out to someone with bravery, trust and faith extended to a stranger to discuss your innermost thoughts and feelings. You may have had negative experiences with psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors or any professional claiming to provide supportive services. Or you may have no experiences of therapy to draw on and have nothing to compare the experience to. Nevertheless, opening oneself up to a therapist is filled with vulnerability.

When I meet new clients I am acutely aware of the sensitivity of this process. I accept the trust bestowed upon me as a sacred privilege. I position myself not as the expert, but the witness to your experiences. With a willing set of eyes and ears, some finely honed attentive skills and tools derived from immersion in the stories of others, I aim to create a context for you to feel at ease to discuss some of your most difficult challenges, troubling experiences, and tenacious strengths.

Finding the right match in a therapist means embarking on or bolstering growth in your awareness of yourself, your emotions, thought processes, and events that impact you. Even when you are feeling at your most challenged, there are opportunities for new discovery, new perspective, and new ways of functioning that bring you closer to your fullest potential.

It is an honour for someone to accompany you in your process, so choose as selectively as you need to in order to find the right match. A trusting, supportive relationship with the right therapist can help provide a safe space to learn new ways of being in healthy relationship with yourself, and with others.