The start of a new relationship?
Your initial consultation, which will normally last around 45 minutes, is often the first time that we’ll meet. During this time, a key aspect is figuring out if we can quickly develop a good working relationship with each other. The relationship between yourself and your therapist is key to you achieving the positive change you are seeking. It is thought that around 30% of your success is down to the relationship that you build up with your therapist. You need to be able to trust that I am the right person to help you move forwards with your life.
Information gathering
This is really the only time I will need to gather information about the problem that is currently holding you back in life. Solution focused hypnotherapy is very outcome focused. If you decide to take up therapy, our talk during your session will be about how you want to think, feel and act in the future and not be about the problem you are experiencing.
It is however necessary for me to initially find out more about your current situation. This will enable me to gain a greater understanding of your current circumstances and enable me to give you a realistic timescale of how many sessions I think you will need.
Examples of questions I might ask include:
How am I going to help you?
How long has this condition been part of your life?
How is it affecting your life?
How would your life be different without this condition being part of it?
Explaining the science behind why you are thinking and feeling how you are?
Most people come to their initial consultation knowing that they want to change but don’t understand why they’re feeling and thinking the way they currently are. Perhaps you can remember times in your life when anxiety wasn’t present but now you find yourself negatively forecasting the future and spend each day with worry filling your mind.
Using the details, you provided during the information-gathering session I will explain to you in simple terms what has happened in your brain that means that you are now feeling and thinking the way you are.
For many people, this is the moment where it all makes sense. They come away with a much better understanding of what has happened to make them spend more and more time thinking from the negative and obsessional part of their brain.
I will then explain to you the simple process that we follow in order for you to spend less and less time thinking from this part of your brain and more time thinking from the rational, positive and problem-solving parts of your brain.
Any Questions?
Please feel free to take notes during your consultation if you wish. If there are things that have come up during the consultation that you are not sure about, or you just want to ask more questions about hypnotherapy we can discuss them at the end of your consultation.
Based on the information you provided at the beginning of the consultation, I will provide you with an estimate of the number of sessions I believe we will require to work together.
It is then entirely up to you if you decide that you would like for us to work together.
Perhaps you might be interested in reading some other articles in my ‘Hypnotherapy and you’ series including:
A users guide to solution focused hypnotherapy
What happens during my first solution focused hypnotherapy session?