Seeing a Psychologist. What does it entail?
Before seeing a psychologist it may be helpful to discuss your difficulties with your GP, to address or rule out any underlying medical reasons for your problems. Some medical conditions present with psychological features e.g. thyroid abnormalities, it can be useful to address these causes before anything else.
I usually suggest an initial (without charge) telephone conversation for us to talk through an overview of your difficulties and what you would like to achieve, with a view to deciding whether Clinical Psychology will best meet your needs. If Clinical Psychology is an appropriate avenue for you we can meet for further assessment of your difficulties and to perhaps undertake some therapy.
You will probably find that the experience of psychological therapy varies from person to person. Broadly speaking the first few appointments are in depth assessment sessions using interview and questionnaire formats. At these meetings your clinician will focus on getting to know you and building up a detailed understanding of the difficulties you are experiencing in the context of your life history.
After the assessment process, your clinician will discuss with you what we call a psychological formulation of your difficulties. This aims to identify the psychological processes important in the development and maintenance of your problems, and what would be the best ways to overcome your difficulties.
The assessment and formulation phases may thus lead directly to a therapy plan. This is negotiated with you and will give you a broad idea of what the therapy phase will involve. The rest of your appointments from then will be therapy sessions with an emphasis on helping you move forward at your pace, towards your goals.
The therapy is usually a relatively short term process. It generally spans between six and twenty four, sixty minute sessions on average. Sessions are normally held weekly, although you may choose to space sessions out as you wish.
It is not uncommon for psychological therapy, at least at the beginning of the process, to stir up difficult feelings and memories, or for you to sometimes feel worse before seeing any improvements particularly as you become less contained by your defences. It is helpful if you let your therapist know if this is the case, so that you can discuss together how best to manage this.
As you reach the end of your therapy, your therapist will work with you in navigating the ending process and in planning how to maintain and progress the changes you have made, as well as perhaps signposting you to resources that can support you after you have been discharged.
All personal information is held in strict confidence and in accordance with the Data Protection Act (2018) and British Psychological Society requirements respectively. If you wish, brief letters are written, to which you are copied in, informing your GP or psychiatrist of the therapy you are undertaking. Very rarely confidentiality may need to be broken in the event of risk of harm to yourself or others. However this will not generally be done without prior discussion with you, and will be done for the purpose of mobilising extra support for you and / or ensuring safety for others.