Assessment Process

As counsellors, our aim is to make informed decision about entering into a counselling relationship with you and this requires a depth psychological contact in order to be successful.

Before the start of the counselling, you will meet the counsellor for an assessment session usually one session will be sufficient.

As an individual member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP). I will perform my own assessment with you.

We won’t give you a test
You will be given a basic form to fill in
We will have a simple conversation with you to see if our counselling methods are appropriate to you.
We will discuss the reasons that brought you to seek for counselling and what you are looking for from the counselling.
Conversation about the cost, time, feasibility & confidentiality.

At the end of the assessment, we will agree the focus of work and the next step if we are able to work with you.

A Basic Assessment Overview May Be As Followed:

A 50 minutes meeting.
Introduction from you and the therapist.
Mutual assessment of each other (You need to know about the therapist, the therapist needs to know about you).
The Therapist will need to check things like:
What is (are) your current problem(s)?
Have you had counselling before?
Your occupation, relationship status, children, medical health.
Why have you chosen counselling now?
What do you hope to gain from counselling … and what’s your goals/achievements might be for when the counselling is completed?
Some historical information.
A conversation about your family.
A conversation about your work education.
A conversation about your support networks.
A discussion about if we both think counselling might be helpful for you, or maybe to refer you to another therapy.

Keeping You Informed

We will discuss with you about our approach to counselling and answer questions about our qualifications and ethical approach.

We will talk with you about confidentiality and how it affects you, about where the law requires I disclose information (such as serious criminal activity, intended harm to yourself and/or others, or the Children’s Act) and that we will discuss with you before me make such disclosures.

Will also inform you about our supervision arrangements.

By The End of a Counselling Assessment...

We should both have a better understanding of if we think we can work together, if counselling might be a helpful process (for you) to go through (together), and what will be the focus of our counselling work.

We will discuss fees, appointment times and vacation/absences, and what we can expect from each other (we call this “contracting”).

What We Do Next

If you believe you would like to meet with a counsellor to discuss your needs for counselling, make contact to arrange an initial appointment.