Bridge of Allan
Stirling
FK9 4QB
a new client comes to counselling? I am always curious to meet a new client and I hope they feel the same about meeting me. We may have spoken on the phone or been in contact by email. As neither of us have met before I often reflect on what we will say to each other when we meet. For me the session begins when I open my front door and meet you for the first time. My consulting room is about four steps from there. I have tried to make it a serene, calm and welcoming room; but I am very aware that it is decorated to my taste. Many clients are understandably cautious about beginning to talk, wondering how to tell me why they have come; others walk in, sit on the edge of their seat and are tearful. My training required me to be in therapy and crying is what I did when I went to my first counselling session. I felt very vulnerable as I had no idea what was going to happen nor how to express myself. But I soon realized that I felt so accepted and that it was a very special experience to have a person who listened and didn't judge me.
Listen on iPlayer to Lily Bailey talking on Woman's Hour about what it's like to live with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). She explains how difficult she found it to focus on the external world when she had a constant narrative in her head. Also read her memoir Because We Are Bad. bbc.in/2lBe8Lt
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