What to Expect
I prefer to start therapy by finding out what’s awesome and cool about people.
Therapy can be an intimidating proposition for some people. They don’t know what to expect and worry they’ll be laying on a couch talking about their mothers. I won’t smoke a pipe, I promise! Some therapists or counsellors want to dive into your problems as soon as you walk in the door. I prefer to start by finding out what’s awesome and cool about you. It’s not uncommon at the beginning of therapy for some people to have a hard time telling me more than one or two things they value about themselves. That’s okay. We’ll get there. The big question we’ll be working on together is how you want your life to be different.
Here are some things I value. You can expect that I will make these part of our work together:
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Helping you feeling welcomed, accepted and valued
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Engaging in a collaborative, creative working relationship based on equality, mutual respect, and seeing you as the expert on your own life
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Humour :) We may laugh together in our meetings - it can help quite a lot!
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Focusing on what’s right with you, more than what’s wrong with you. We’ll talk about problems, but we’ll talk more about putting you in charge of your own life
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Helping you leave each meeting feeling like I’ve really listened, and like we’re actually making a difference in your life
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Awareness of how injustice, trauma, and other significant hardships can affect peoples’ lives
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Creating a safe environment in therapy for people who may have had such experiences – and for everyone who attends therapy
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Being aware that I’m a cisgendered, heterosexual, white middle-class male and how this position of privilege affects others
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Feedback about my work, and adjusting what I do to what is most helpful for each person