The first counselling session– I remember mine well and it was over 10 years ago now. I was nervous, scared but also with a little bit of hope that finally someone was going to help me.  Honestly, I was probably looking for someone to just fix it all for me.  I had no idea what to expect and could not get rid of the images of someone sat with a pad and pen looking over me laying on a sofa.  

Turns out it was nothing like I had thought it was.  From the very first session it was the best thing I have ever done for myself. 

But I am moving on – lets stick with that first session for now.

Whether you are working with me face to face, online or on the telephone during our first session there will be some things I will need to talk with you about before we get going.  The first thing I will do though is make sure you are comfortable. 

After this I will check in with you about the agreement I sent you in advance. This agreement details information about me and how the process will work.  There are some important things in the agreement which I will talk about in more detail when we meet.  I will explain confidentiality and how that works and check in with you to see if you have any questions.  

Following on from this I will take some personal details from you.  This covers date of birth, address and any medical history that may be relevant.  I will ask about your medical history and whether you are on any medication that might be relevant.  This is important for me to know as some medications or conditions can impact on our mental health. I will also find out if you have had any medical treatment for depression or anxiety now or in the past.  Again, this just helps me to build a picture of what you may have been experiencing. 

The final question I ask is whether you have had any suicidal thoughts in the past or if you have self-harmed.  I am going to do a separate blog post about this and the reasons why I ask this because I know what a big question this is.

Once all that paperwork is done, I will put away my laptop, take off my glasses and we will start to talk. 

You may be ready to start talking straight away or you may want to take your time and get to know me better.  Your pace will be the pace I go at.  You may struggle to know what to say so I will ask some gentle questions to get to know you better. 

Building trust takes time and I know what a precious gift it can be.

So that’s it – that’s what the first session will look like.  This is just the start and hopefully these sessions will help you to identify the tools you need to help you most.  

Working with a counsellor involves clients sharing a lot of personal information about themselves. So, for my first blog I thought it would be good to share some things about myself and what led me to becoming a counsellor.  

My name is Katie and I am privileged to work as a full time counsellor in the beautiful market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire. I am 50 years old, married and mother to a 25 year old.  

Throughout my life I now recognise that I struggled with anxiety. I think it started when I was a young child and it developed into full blown panic attacks type anxiety in my 20’s.

I remember my first and worst panic attack when I was about 26.  I was convinced I was having a heart attack and needed to be taken to hospital to be convinced I wasn’t.  

I lived like this for years until eventually I decided enough was enough and this started my wonderful journey into counselling. I found a local counsellor and started work. I didn’t know what to expect and I was terrified before the first session.  It turned out to be the most amazing experience.  I am someone who struggles to share my worries and anxieties with others, but the counselling room was a place I could do this.  Counselling helped me to see that being vulnerable was a sign of strength. Plus, apparently, I was quite normal.  Counselling helped me to understand my anxiety and learn to reduce it to a much more manageable level.

After that I decided it was time in my life to start doing things for myself. I started a degree in Psychology which led me to re-training as a counsellor.  After 4 years of work I was qualified and ready to go.

So here I am now – working in private practice and loving my job. At times I do still find anxiety can creep back in – as it does with everyone. But now I have the tools which help me recognise when it’s happening and what I need to do to make it easier.

I cannot tell you how much I love counselling and how amazing it is.  To this day I still make time to see my own personal counsellor. This gives me the space I need to check in with myself, but it also ensures I am ok to do the job I do.  Now that doesn’t mean people have to be in counselling forever – it just means I choose to do it because it helps me so much.