Fees & FAQs
How much do sessions cost?
My session rate is currently £60. I accept internet banking and cash payments. I am also a registered provider with AXA Health and Aviva.
How often will we meet?
I work with weekly 50-minute sessions, usually at the same time every week. Sometimes I get asked for fortnightly sessions. As much as I empathise with the practical reasons behind this, such as time and money, my experience is that if you are serious about wanting things in your life to change, weekly sessions will serve you better. In my experience, it will be hard to keep up the momentum with twice-monthly meetings, and either party’s holidays or absences can create huge gaps in the work, which can end up frustrating for both sides. I want therapy to work for you and therefore I would ask for a weekly commitment because our chances for success are much higher that way.
Are psychotherapy and counselling the same thing?
These terms are often used interchangeably and also known under the umbrella term of ‘talking therapy.’
Counselling is sometimes understood to be shorter term and more issue-specific. You might be generally quite happy with how things are going and might encounter a set-back, such as a job loss, a bereavement, or another major life change. By talking things through with a counsellor or a therapist can help you process the experience, understand its impact, as well as decide how to respond to what has happened.
Psychotherapy is generally a longer process, which can bring about profound inner changes. Psychotherapists go through a long training (and personal therapy) in order to work in depth with clients and to facilitate these powerful inner shifts. Psychotherapy may be appropriate if you notice that you find yourself in a similar situation over and over again – i.e. you’ve changed jobs but a similar issue crops up; or you find yourself in repeating patterns in relationships. For example, you discover that even after finding a new partner, you are soon somehow back in a similar role you were in your previous relationship. Or perhaps you have come to realise that despite having attained many of your desired goals in life, there is an underlying sense of doom or a deep unhappiness, which you struggle to understand. In cases like these, psychotherapy can help to start to illuminate underlying (unconscious) patterns, deeply-held core beliefs (also called ‘organising principles’ or ‘schemas’). This process will usually bring about more clarity and understanding, and consequently, more choice in how to respond to life situations.
It is worth noting that these are general ideas and there are many counsellors who work long term. All trained counsellors and psychotherapists are required to have ongoing continuing professional development (CPD) and supervision throughout their careers. When choosing a therapist, in my opinion, a personal ‘fit’ is as important as the modality of their training or their work experience in years.
How long is therapy?
I work both short term and long term, usually in an open-ended way, (i.e. not with a set number of sessions) checking in regularly regarding how we are doing. Equally, we can agree to a number of sessions to start with, say 6 or 12, so that we have a clear review point, if that’s your preference. More often than not, my clients tend to stay longer than they thought, and the issues that we started with might lead us in surprising new directions. Deep change takes time – not least because usually building a good working alliance takes time. However, in my experience some very good work can be done in a shorter timeline, such as 4-6 months.
How do I know psychotherapy is for me?
Sometimes we don’t know. These days there is a huge variety of ways out there to help ourselves and explore what works in terms of our wellbeing. There are apps geared towards improving mental health, self-help books, peer groups, fitness and meditation classes, nature-based activities and many kinds of therapies to choose from. Psychotherapy works on several different levels, including the unconscious and the body. Why does that matter? Einstein is quoted to have said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” One could argue that a deep shift calls for something different from the thinking (or knowing) that we have used over the years. Books and talks can give us ‘information’ on a conscious level but in many cases, it doesn’t seem to be enough to bring about meaningful change. We still find ourselves in the same old patterns, the nuggets of gold lost and forgotten. In my experience, this can leave us feeling even more defeated and down, believing that we are broken beyond repair. Insights in psychotherapy sessions in the presence of a caring, attentive other often make themselves known as ‘full-body’ realisations. More importantly, they are generally not nuggets of wisdom from me, but have come directly to you in the process of our work. They are genuinely yours, and therefore more powerful than other people’s teachings. In psychotherapy terms, they are helpful realisations you cannot ‘un-know'; they leave a lasting imprint.
Like many other processes, sometimes psychotherapy asks for a leap of faith, a little bit of time to be tried and tested.
Have other questions or would prefer to speak on the phone?
I'd love to hear from you.
Please use the contact form on the Contact page to write to me or call +44 7851 728 773. I may not always be able to pick up the phone, please leave a voice message or a text and I will get back to you ASAP.
© Kaire Davidson 2024 All rights reserved.
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