What to Expect

You will be dealing with highly trained and skilled professionals, whether clinical or administrative staff, who will keep your confidence and work hard to maintain your trust.  Confidence and trust are essential to the process of therapy, and we are ethically and professionally bound by these key principles.  

Discussions with your therapist and any notes they write will not be disclosed to any other person without your consent. Exceptions to this would be if your therapist is required to disclose information by a court of law, or in order to protect you or another person from significant harm.  If your physical or mental health deteriorates to a point of serious concern or your psychologist believes that you are a significant risk to yourself or others then they may, without your consent, contact your GP or psychiatrist, or the emergency services.

When you make contact with Lansdowne Clinic, we will arrange for you to have a brief screening assessment with a Consultant Clinical Psychologist – this is known as an initial or  “Triage” assessment.  We do not charge a fee for this and the assessment is generally conducted over the phone. This allows us to find out about the nature of your issues and decide the best way forward for you and importantly, it helps us match you to a suitable therapist. 

The primary goal of the first session with a therapist is to help you decide if therapy might be appropriate and if so, to help you decide what form of therapy might best meet your specific needs.  An important consideration at this stage, is whether the therapist you are seeing is someone you can work with. It is important to remember that you are NOT committed to continue with therapy, and you are NOT committed to working with the therapist conducting the first session.  You may be more comfortable seeing someone else and we will be happy to discuss this with you and may recommend another therapist from the practice or indeed, another practice if this is required to meet your needs.

Modern forms of psychological therapy are very interactive and besides talking about your specific issues, tend to involve other  practical activities during the session, or exercises to try out between sessions and you might also be provided with additional material such as books and recommendations for websites and apps.  This allows you to add to you knowledge and skills and try out some of the new things you’ve been learning in therapy.

When you start therapy at Lansdowne Clinic, your therapist will have a time limit in mind, focussed on achieving specific goals.   

The time limit will reflect your specific needs.  You will not be expected to enter into an open-ended contract.  The timescale can change as you move through therapy, and this is an issue that will be discussed with you in an open and straight forwards way – the limits will always be linked to specific and achievable goals.  

Remember, you can always come back after discharge to see your therapist for a progress review or when you feel you need a boost after a particular set-back. You might decide to come back for another short course of therapy – we will be on hand to advise with your best interests in mind.