If you are offered a face-to-face counselling session, the initial appointment will be a continuation of the discussion you had with the Telephone Triage Counsellor. The Face-to-Face Counsellor will check how you have been since the telephone triage discussion and revisit your goals for Counselling. Your counsellor may ask some questions, encourage you to say more, or make some comments, so that you can both understand the situation better. If you want to, you can ask questions about the Counselling Service and the counselling process.
Your counsellor knows how difficult it can be to ask for help and talk about your problems. They won't mind if you find it hard to express your feelings, or if you cry or get angry. You are in control of the pace at which things happen.
At the start of the session, you may be asked to fill out another set of clinical assessments (GAD-7, PHQ-9 & CORE- 10). These clinical assessments help the counsellor to understand how you feel, think and cope and if anything has changed since you first contacted the Service or participated in a Telephone Triage discussion. We also ask you to complete these measures when you finish your counselling (whether one or more sessions), and that helps us evaluate the impact of the service.
The initial Face-to-Face appointment (and any subsequent appointments) will last for 50 minutes from your appointment time. Your counsellor must finish on time. They will still see you if you arrive a little late. However, that does reduce what can be achieved in your appointment, so please make every effort to arrive on time.