Deciding on whether to commence Therapy

If your enquiry is concerning psychotherapy, as opposed to psychiatry, all prospective clients are offered a completely free, no obligation assessment session with a qualified psychotherapist. This provides the opportunity to consider which therapeutic approach is best suited to you and your treatment needs. Sometimes a further assessment may be necessary before we can formulate an initial treatment plan and match you with a therapist.

Once the assessment process is completed and the outcomes discussed with you, we can then embark on the therapy agreed upon, or can refer you to another therapist/agency as required.

With all approaches/modalities you are free to terminate at any time, although it is preferable wherever possible to work towards a planned ending to safely disengage. Endings will be discussed periodically throughout the therapy as part of the review process which ensures the work is progressing and remains beneficial.

Please note that all Psychiatry assessments are charged as these assessments commonly take in the region of 2-3 hours to complete – please contact us to discuss the rates and the different procedure for this.

All individual therapy sessions last 50 minutes (a clinical hour), including art therapy sessions. The duration of family and group psychotherapy sessions are agreed in accordance with best practice following an initial assessment.

If you arrive late for a session we will still end the session at the usual time, so as not to impact on other clients/patients. To protect individual anonymity, and ensure complete client confidentiality, we allow 20 minutes between all appointments so please do not arrive early for your session to respect this privacy measure.

Accreditation

All therapists working at Phoenix Psychotherapy are accredited professionals and registered with at least one of the professional bodies listed below.

The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy
Health & Care Professions Council
British Association of Art Therapists
British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
British Psychoanalytic Council
International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP)

If you would like to know more about this area, please follow the link below.

Fees are negotiated on an individual basis within a sliding scale and a few concessionary places are available.

However, in order to inform your decision, an illustration of current fees and charges are listed.

Confidentiality & Privacy

The trust between client/patient and therapist is of paramount importance and crucial to the success of the therapeutic process, therefore all information disclosed by you, including any images created by you, is treated as confidential.

Phoenix Psychotherapy has a dedicated and confidential phone line. There will however be times when no one can answer your call but there is a secure voice mail facility on this number where you may leave a message. If we need to contact you we will agree in advance a protocol regarding message leaving with you, including which number/s are acceptable to you.