Initial appointments involve you and I having an informal conversation about what has brought you to seek my input and what you hope to get out of it. I am friendly and warm, and try to ensure clients feel comfortable talking with me. I would aim to give you a chance to say what you want to say and ask any questions you have.

The bond between a therapist and client is extremely important, so it would be a good chance to meet me and see how we think we would work together before committing to anything further. I will be honest with you about whether I think we would work well together and what I would recommend to fit with your goals. If I think that NHS or other free services will be able to help you I will tell you this is available to you. If I think other paid services are better able to help you I will also tell you this.

Sometimes the outcome of an initial assessment produces clear actions that are likely to help. It may be that you want to try these before considering following up with individual therapy appointments. Some people can benefit from having just one appointment - to have a psychologist help connect the dots, or from the insight or advice that follows this. Some people already know they wish to continue into regular therapy sessions.

You would always be in control of how many appointments you choose to have, so if you have a session limit in mind for therapy you can just say and I will tailor any plans to you and your budget. My previous work has ranged from one session to longer term work over a number of years. It is not always possible to know in advance how long therapy will take, but it would be your choice and I would never tell you that you need more sessions.

Some people are clear on what they want to work on and may have a specific intervention in mind, e.g. EMDR to process specific traumatic events. For those who want advice on intervention I will be able to suggest what I think you will find useful after an initial appointment, and we can come to a plan you are happy with.

If you want to have regular sessions on a particular day or time, we can make block bookings for sessions. You can still pay for them separately as you go along. I otherwise operate appointment bookings on a first come first served basis with what I have available.

I accept payment in advance of booked sessions by bank transfer. On booking a session I will send you my therapy contract which will confirm the necessary details.

I carry out all therapy appointments over Google meet. This is free to use and secure (i.e. no one can listen in to our session). When you book an appointment with me I will send you a calendar invite containing the link for us to meet and explain how it works in case you have not used Google meet before. I will also give you my work phone number – so you will be able to contact me via phone, text or email if you have any queries or difficulties with the process.

A therapists skills are clearly important for how effective therapy will be. As is the relevance of the approach used and the quality of the therapeutic relationship. But – I will also be very clear that in my experience a client’s openness to engaging in honest reflection, willingness to work hard during and between therapy sessions (e.g. trying new ways of communicating and doing things), and willingness to make the changes they determine as needed – are all critical to the outcome of the therapy experience. Even if you want therapy to just be exploratory (i.e. understand yourself and behaviour better) you need to come ready to make use of it – just like you would if you got private tuition in building any other skill. There is no magic pill, and I will not be able to do all the work for you.

MBTI is an assessment tool used to indicate your ‘personality type’. It was created by Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers based on the work of Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

Your personality type describes your preferences in how you interact with other people and your environment, how you take in information and how you make decisions. Knowing about type theory, and knowing in detail about your own type can be helpful in all sorts of ways. These include but are not limited to:

• Understanding yourself

• Knowing and using your strengths

• Guiding self development

• Guiding what kind of work you may find enjoyable and meaningful

• Improving relationships with others in your life

There is a lot of information online about MBTI types, there are also shortened free versions of the test. I am certified to provide the official test, reports and feedback. With these you can be assured of quality of information which is consistent with the extensive research which has been done to make sure the test really says what we think it does (i.e. validity).

You can find out more about MBTI here.

I personally think the MBTI provides an excellent framework for understanding and developing yourself. It can also help groups of people understand each other and work better together as a result, making full use of the strengths different individuals can offer.

My MBTI personality type is INFJ.

If you decide to book an assessment I will arrange for an account to be set up for you on the MBTI platform ‘OPP Assessment’. This will generate an email to you with log in details for the platform and a link to take the test. We will book a date and time to meet for a feedback session.

The test takes approx. 20-30 minutes to complete. You will do this on your own at least 48 hours prior to our feedback session.

Once you have completed the assessment I can order your preferred report summarising your results. More details on report options can be found below.

During our feedback session I will provide your report and go through the results. I will ensure you know what your results mean, and give you ideas on how you could make use of them.

If you wish to book in additional coaching sessions to further make use of the information and insight gained from the assessment feedback we would discuss and agree the goals and focus of this work together.

Feedback sessions can be booked for 1 hour (£100) or 1 hour 30 minutes (£150) depending on preference for how much depth you would like feedback to go into. If you are unsure please book 1 hour and see how you feel following this.

The cost of each report is in addition to my hourly feedback rate. It is not possible to do feedback sessions without purchasing a report. The report is how we both find out your test results. It is also not possible to order the report without having a feedback session. The MBTI organisation consider it unethical practice to complete the test without test practitioners helping ensure your online test results fit you correctly and that you understand what your results mean.

MBTI Profile Report - £28.50

This is a 2 page outline which will give you your 4 letter type preferences and the basics of what the 4 preferences and overall type indicates.

MBTI Step II Interpretive Report - £59.50

This report builds on the above Profile Report (which it includes so no need to order both) with a highly personalised and comprehensive breakdown of the 20 different facets covered by the preference questions.

The report goes on to consider your results in the areas of communication, change management, decision making and conflict management.

MBTI Career Report - £31.50

Explore best-fit career based on your assessment results.

MBTI Conflict Style Report - £31.50

This report focuses on improving conflict management effectiveness with practical tips and advice.

MBTI Stress Management Report - £31.50

Stress can undermine individual performance or propel individual success, depending on how we react to it. This report focuses on recognising and handling workplace stress.

MBTI Decision Making Style Report - £31.50

This report focuses on understanding decision making style, making better decisions and more impactful contributions.

MBTI Personal Impact Report - £75.00

This report focuses on 8 aspects of personal development - including work style, communication style, team style, decision making style, conflict style, leadership style, how stress impacts you and your approach to change.

MBTI Team Report - £31.50

You may consider ordering this report when booking team or group type assessment and feedback days. It focuses on the overall type of your team by considering the type of those within it. It helps identify team strengths, blind spots and development areas. Please note a report should be ordered for each member of the team who completes the MBTI assessment. They are ordered as a package.

MBTI Interpretive Report for Organisations - £46.50

This report describes how an individual’s MBTI type may be expressed in an organisational setting. In contrast to the above report which focuses on the team type, this report focuses on the individual within the team.

More information on what is included in each report can be found on the OPP shop webpage here.