We will ask you to complete an assessment once you have booked your session. It's not mandatory, but adding some information to the self-assessment questionnaire will help you and your therapist get a head start in your relationship, and we do recommend completing this to save time in your initial session.
Please note that some therapists will require the self-assessment to be completed before accepting your booking so they can review the information about what you are seeking help with in advance of confirming your session.
You can find the self-assessment questionnaire in your account (directions here), or there will also be a link in your booking confirmation email.
The assessment contains three sections :
a space for you to share some written information about what you are seeking help with, any relevant history or treatment, and what you'd like to achieve from therapy.
two short standardised questionnaires about how you have been feeling over the last couple of weeks (the “Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9)” and the “Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD7)”).
Once you've completed your questionnaire it will be made available to your therapist for them to review.
It can also be a good idea to think about and note down any questions you might have for your therapist - these could be practical queries, questions about the therapist's experience, what you can expect working with them, how they could help with the issues you are seeking support for etc.
Therapists are trained to help you talk about yourself and explore the issues at hand, so it’s okay to not know what you want from therapy, what exactly is upsetting you, or if you simply don't know where to start.
For more information, we have the articles below about what to expect in therapy and the first session that you may wish to have a read through :