Frequently Asked Questions

What if I cannot attend an appointment?

There are some reasons you may not be able to attend an appointment, you can expect your therapist to understand that you may need to cancel occasionally.

If you need to cancel an appointment, please phone our department as early as possible to let them know, and either your therapist or an administrator will contact you to reschedule.

If you do not attend an appointment, and you haven’t cancelled in advance, you will be sent a letter, giving you 21 days to make contact and arrange an appointment. If you do not make contact in this time, we will assume you no longer wish to attend therapy and you will be discharged from the service.

If you regularly cancel appointments, your therapist will discuss with you the reasons for this, and discuss whether therapy is the right choice for you at this time.

What if I do not feel that therapy is working for me?

There may be times in therapy when you feel that your needs are not being met, or you are not sure if you are seeing the change you need.

You can expect your therapist to understand, and want to work with you to find a solution for this. It can be tempting to avoid going to sessions, and it may be that you feel let down or angry with your therapist or yourself when something isn’t working as hoped. It is important to remember, that your therapist is here to work with you and wants what is best for you, so if you do feel this way, the best course of action is usually to try talking to your therapist about what is happening for you.

How will I know when I am ready to end therapy?

Ending therapy can be a challenging time, and it may be that you are worried your therapy will be ended before you are ready, or that you are uncertain about maintaining the changes you have made.

Firstly, your therapist will have discussed with you how long you can expect to work together.

Secondly, your therapist will usually work with you on a plan to end therapy that works for you. This can sometimes mean creating a self care plan or relapse prevention plan. We may end therapy gradually by spacing out the last few sessions, so that ending does not feel abrupt and you have time to adjust.

What if I want to return to therapy later on?

People can return to therapy for different reasons throughout their life, as we change and our life changes, we can struggle with maintaining the progress we have made, we can reach a point where we are ready to make changes we were not able to before, or something can happen that we would like help working through with a therapist again.

You can ask to be referred again through your GP or mental health team. However we would usually suggest that after finishing a period of therapy, you give yourself some time let the effects of therapy sink in, and keep working on things on your own. Because of that, we would suggest not being referred again for at least a year.

If you return to therapy, it might be helpful to think about the work you completed before, and whether there are some things you can try again, and consider what goals you might have that are different from the last time you attended.