What to expect from your initial consultation

So, you’ve browsed the Hypnotherapy Directory and found me, or maybe seen my face lurking on a leaflet in a café, or a friend recommended SFH and you’ve decided to take the plunge. Hello and nice to meet you!

Starting therapy can be daunting, whether you’ve had therapy before or not. For this reason, I like to start with a no obligation phone or video call so you can get a sense of who I am and whether we’ll be a good fit. If you’re happy, we can get straight into the initial consultation. Here’s a brief outline of what to expect.

Firstly, find a quiet place with a solid internet connection and grab a brew. Then we will discuss what has brought you to seek hypnotherapy and how we can help you, which this gives us the chance to formulate a therapeutic plan together.

We then get into why your brain is behaving the way it is (and you get to see my pretty drawings). This is a foundational part of solution focused hypnotherapy. We go through this neuroscience explanation every week. The reason being that by repeating this explanation, you’ll eventually know this off by heart. The brain explanation gives you the context of your behaviour, thought patterns and feelings and by bringing awareness to what’s going on, this empowers you to be able to change what you want to change.

During this, I’ll go through what to expect in our sessions and a rough estimation of treatment length. This is all dependent on what you are presenting with, and everyone responds to SFH at different paces. Of course, results can also vary depending on what you do outside of the session.

This is where the work begins. After our initial consultation, I’ll send you my relaxation audio to listen to before you sleep every evening, and you will also note down all the things that have been good during the week. These good things can be as small as an excellent cup of coffee or enjoying a good film. Whatever you notice, take a note. This will be laying down the foundations of the neuroplastic changes we will witness in the upcoming weeks.

During the initial consultation, there will be ample time to ask any questions you may have, and your understanding of the process should be crystal clear. We will book you in for the first session around a week after which gives you plenty of time to start implementing the work.

And there you have it!

Ready to get stuck in? If you are, I’ll be your cheerleader all the way!