Therapy can be vulnerable and new, so it’s natural to be nervous. It can be scary to think of opening up or crying in front of someone new, perhaps fearing that it will be awkward and uncomfortable. It may also have been difficult to trust people in the past, and hard to imagine that this will feel any different.

These fears can feel overwhelming and cause doubt about the therapy process. You are, however, using your bravery now, looking for help, and it gets easier from here.

Therapy is a space where you can be yourself and bring up whatever is going on for you, including feeling nervous. I’m committed to finding a way to care for your nervousness and ensure sessions are as comfortable as possible.

I’m also here if you want to talk about it during a free phone consultation.

Take your time to read through my website. If you sense that I may be a good fit based on what you’re reading, you can schedule yourself in my online scheduler for a 30-minute meeting at no cost.

During the consultation, you can ask me about how I have helped other people like you before, what a typical session with me is like, or any other questions you may have that are specific to you. You’ll also be able to share what’s going on for you, and I can share my ideas around how I can help you.

It may be helpful to think of the first few sessions as trying out the waters together. During the sessions, you’ll be able to see how you feel working with me. What’s most important is that you find someone who you feel is the right fit for you. We can explore that together.

If something feels overwhelming or even terrifying to discuss, that's very normal. We can work with the feelings you have about how scary it feels to bring something up. During our sessions, it will always be up to you if you feel ready to talk about something or not. It's my job to give you space to start slowly and ease into working through more difficult themes. We will move gradually at a pace that feels comfortable for you.

Your feelings are welcome, as are your feelings about how you feel.

If you open up to me, I will not think you are a bad person; I will think you are someone who's very courageous. Many of my clients have had the same fear (that people would think they are a bad person).

Working with many clients has shown me that the challenges people face are normal and natural. Everyone is using their best possible responses to sometimes complex and overwhelming situations. It’s completely normal not to feel proud of the way one responds to life at times. When this is the case, we can work on building a reserve of self-compassion and self-forgiveness.

You're a good person. Nothing you can say will cause me to think differently.

Whatever it is you're going through, I provide a space full of possibility, compassion and care.

You may be concerned that your friends, family, or work colleagues could learn what you have said during therapy. So, I want you to know that unless you are in danger or someone else is, your story is confidential and your time in the session is protected.

Your privacy and trust are of utmost importance.

You can rest assured that you can talk about anything without fear of that information getting out. If you have specific questions about how confidentiality works, you can ask during your free consultation or anytime during our work together.

You might be wondering about how long therapy will take because you think that therapy will be an overwhelming process, or because you want relief quickly.

If this is true for you, I want you to know that on average, my new clients start seeing positive effects after just a couple of sessions.

By this point, they feel a little calmer and hopeful that healing is possible.

The total duration of therapy varies from client to client. Some of my clients find 6-12 weeks to be enough to resolve immediate challenges. While other clients feel more supported by longer-term therapy to work on enduring childhood-based coping strategies that take longer to shift.

We will work together to find the length of time that works for you.

Overall, you can think of the first session as a free-flowing conversation through which we start getting to know each other. I’ll invite you to share more about yourself, and we can also talk about what’s worked or not worked for your mental health in the past.

Some questions that I like to ask during a first session include:

• What’s present for you in your life right now?

• Have you gone to therapy before? How did that go?

• What goals would you like to reach by going to therapy?

You can ask me questions as well. You might be curious about my experience or how future sessions work.

The most important part of a first session is that you see if you feel I’m a good fit for you. If you feel calm, heard, and cared for with me, we can discuss if you’d like to meet again.

Absolutely, yes. It actually provides many benefits for those recovering from trauma, including:

• An increased sense of safety and control in one's own familiar environment

• Less stimulation and overwhelm getting to appointments, resulting in engaging from calmer states

• The ability to more quickly integrate the use of new somatic tools in one's own spaces

Working somatically is one of the options we have together, but I can also work with you from other approaches that don’t require you to “tune into the body” I understand that this approach may not feel right for many.

But also, this is very common and completely okay. If you are interested in somatic work in this case, you can rest in knowing that somatic therapy doesn’t require you to instantly feel “in tune” with your body or sensations. Part of the work can be gently exploring why certain body-based approaches feel unfamiliar, uncomfortable, or even unsafe. We move at your pace, with full respect for your boundaries.

If you’re neurodivergent, have sensory sensitivities, or have had negative experiences with body-based practices in the past, our work can be tailored to what does feel supportive and accessible for you. This might mean using more visual or verbal metaphors, structured approaches, or focusing on grounding and safety.

I'm here to talk during a free online or phone consultation where you can share what’s going on for you, and I can share my ideas around how I can help you.

Schedule yourself in my online scheduler.