Most people arrive with no real picture of what therapy involves โ only what they've seen on television, which is mostly wrong. This page is the honest version.
Everything else adapts to the person. These stay constant regardless of who's in the chair.
An integrative practice means the approach is chosen after we understand the problem, not before. If CBT isn't landing, we don't push harder โ we change instruments.
You decide what's discussed and when. Difficult material is approached only once there's enough stability to hold it, and we close it again before the hour ends.
Drift is the most common way therapy quietly stops working. We check direction openly every few months so you're never guessing whether this is going anywhere.
Not a script โ sessions go where they need to. But this is the usual shape. Tap a segment to see what each part is for.
The first stretch is for arriving properly. What's happened since last time, what's sitting at the front of your mind, whether anything from the previous session stayed with you or fell apart on contact with the week.
The substantial middle. This is where the method gets applied โ examining a pattern, practising a skill, processing something difficult, or sitting with a question that doesn't have a tidy answer yet. The shape depends entirely on what's needed.
The last stretch exists so you don't leave mid-sentence and raw. We settle the nervous system, name what came up, and make sure you're steady enough to walk back into your day.
Therapy isn't the same at week two as it is at month eight. Here's roughly how the shape changes.
Mostly history and context โ what's going on, how long it's been going on, what you've already tried, and what you'd like to be different. You'll do more talking than you might expect, and you won't be asked to solve anything.
Weekly to start. These sessions establish trust and give us both enough information to know which approach fits. Some people feel relief quickly; others feel briefly worse as things get named for the first time. Both are normal.
Once the immediate pressure eases, the work usually moves underneath it โ to the pattern that keeps producing the problem. Sessions often shift to fortnightly around here. Progress becomes less dramatic and more durable.
Therapy is meant to become unnecessary. When you're steadier, we taper deliberately rather than stopping abruptly โ spacing sessions out, consolidating what you've learned, and planning for the difficult weeks that will inevitably still come.
Predictable structure is what allows unpredictable conversation. Here's how it's held.
Progress in therapy is real but rarely linear, so it helps to know what to watch for.
The most important measure. Are the things that were hard getting easier? Is the week less of a fight? You're the primary source of evidence here, not an afterthought.
Sleep, work, relationships, whether you're doing things you'd stopped doing. Mood is noisy week to week; behaviour is a steadier signal of what's actually shifting.
Every few months we stop and take stock together โ what's changed, what hasn't, and whether the approach still fits. If it doesn't, that's information, and we adjust.
No cost, no obligation. If anything here raised a question, that's exactly what the consult is for.
