C. S. Lewis
Your Sessions from beginning to end
First Contact with Prevail
When you first contact Prevail you can request a brief video or phone call. The purpose of this is to provide you with the opportunity to ask whatever questions you may have. This call also allows us to organise a day and time for a session. If you prefer to email, message etc. we can arrange a session that way as well.
Once the session day and time has been agreed you will receive an email of information about the sessions.
It is generally best to start with hourly sessions weekly, but shorter more spaced sessions, can be agreed.
The First Session
The main purpose of the 1st session is for the client to become comfortable with the counsellor and the counsellor to gain an understanding of the client’s needs.
The contract outlining general guidelines for how the sessions will work is signed in the 1st session. Special attention is paid to how confidentiality works. I use an assessment form to gather information on your needs. The assessment process enables you to identify what is your primary concerns to work through in counselling. It is important that you as the client satisfy the need to offload any overbearing concerns in the first session. Therefore it is not necessary to finish the assessment form in the 1st session.
After the 1st session you will be given the opportunity to express your preferences on how the counselling will be conducted.
General Session Structure
Each session begins with a review of the client’s well being since the last session. Unless availing of a 30 or 45 minute session all sessions are 60 minutes long. Sessions consist of you exploring your issues related to the concerns you want to talk about. The sessions finish with a feedback on how the session has helped you. Suggestions maybe made for client work in between the sessions. Every 6 sessions a review of the effectiveness of the counselling work is done.
Finishing Counselling
You can finish your counselling at any stage. You are encouraged though to inform me of your decision before your last session. This allows for safe closure of emotional issues and possible referral to other agencies. Generally clients do about 10 sessions. When you finish I will send you a feedback form which is for my own practice development.
Other aspects of how sessions are structured
Counselling Availability
When you inform me of your preferred day and time I will do my best to meet that. It is good to keep to the same time for the sessions but I can not guarantee that I will be able to do this.
This is my general availability Monday to Saturday.
- Monday: 7am to last session finishing at 2pm, in Clondalkin
- Tuesday: 7am to last session finishing at 9pm, in Clondalkin
- Wednesday: 4pm to last session finishing at 8:30pm in Clondalkin
- Thursday: 8:15am to the last session finishing at 8:30pm in Bray
- Friday: 7am to last session finishing at 5pm in Clondalkin
- Saturday: 9:30am to the last session finishing at 1pm in Clondalkin
Number of Sessions
Generally clients do about 10 sessions. This however is a very individual decision. Clients choose the amount of sessions depending on their own circumstances. Clients may chose to do a preset amount of sessions. In that case it is good to inform me beforehand. The counselling can be structured to finish within your desired time frame.
If you want to do just 1 session that is ok. Please inform me of this and we can do a suitable session for you. The full fee applies in such a situation.
Some clients may desire to have a long term counselling arrangement of an indefinite duration.
Session Frequency
It is best to do sessions weekly so as to keep a good momentum going. This may not always be possible as your circumstances may not allow it. Prevail is happy to space out the frequency of your sessions as you desire.
Video/Phone sessions
For your own personal reasons you may prefer your counseling provided over video or the phone, even if you usually have them in person. If you chose video/phone sessions you need to maintain your own confidentiality. It is also important to create your own therapeutic space that you are comfortable in. Try to maintain this safe space for yourself for a time after your session so that you can process properly what happened for you in the session. The same fee structure exists for video/phone sessions as for in person sessions.
Confidentiality
For client safety all written information is kept in a locked cabinet in a locked room. The notes I make about each session have a client code on them instead of names. The only person I discuss my client work with is my supervisor, and again no names are used. If I meet a client outside of counselling it is best to keep such contact to an absolute minimum.
Reports
If you require a report from me on your counselling work, I will provide a simple statement. It will say when you started, how many sessions you have had and the date the sessions ended if they have ended. If more information than that is required, I will discuss that with my supervisor.