Therapy at Plum Psychology
A quick-reference guide to our procedures and processes to make everything feel clear and trasparent.
This page gives you a clear overview of what to expect when starting therapy with Plum Psychology — from your introduction call and booking sessions to the therapy process and practical details.
1. INTRODUCTION CALL
The purpose of this is to check that both you and the recommended therapist feel like a good fit for working together. It lasts about 15-20 minutes.
It is carried out either on the phone or on a video call depending on your preference.
The therapist will ask you a few questions about your current difficulties, your hopes for therapy and will check whether you need extra support beyond therapy - such as crisis services or other, more specialist services for example, an alcohol-support team.
If this is the case they will explain this to you and make a recommendation about who this would be. You can also ask questions about therapy to help you decide on your next steps.
If the therapist believes they are a good fit to help you they will offer you a time for an initial assessment session and you will leave with a date and time for this.
Once you and your therapist have agreed a date and time during your call you will need to use this booking link to confirm and pay for the slot - this needs to be done within 24 hours of the Intro Call to secure the slot. If you need a bit more time to book please inform your therapist - they will try to hold it for you for a little while longer but please note that we have new enquiries coming in and cannot hold it for you indefinitely.
Following receipt of payment you will be sent pre-therapy questionnaires to complete. This includes information to register you to our service as well as some questionnaires about your current mood – one for your level of anxiety and one for your level of depression. The mood questionnaires are optional but are a helpful bench mark for how you are entering therapy. Just let your therapist know if you do not with to complete them.
Please let your therapist know if you dislike form filling. They can help you do this at the start of the session.
Your therapist will aim to keep the same slot free for you each week but to confirm this it must be booked and paid for.
If payment has not been received at least 48 hours before the slot the session will be cancelled.
We recommend using the booking link at the end of each week’s session to ensure you have secured the slot.
Price list: Therapy with an associate psychologist £140 per session, Therapy with the director £180 per session. Reports - £140 per hour - quotes given upon request.
4. WHAT HAPPENS IN YOUR THERAPY SESSIONS
Therapy sessions will happen on the same video link each session (unless being seen in-person). Please ‘save’ or ‘star’ the original email with this link so you can find it easily.
The first 2-3 sessions are usually the assessment phase- these will involve speaking about your difficulties and the background before then making a plan for treatment together which forms a roadmap of techniques or areas to focus on.
Your therapist is always trying to ensure that your session is helpful and will lead the session, so please don’t worry if you’re not sure what to say as they will scaffold everything to the pace you need. Sometimes you might be given between-session tasks, let them know if this is tricky or if you found it unhelpful because this gives them important information about what path to try next.
Our therapists are all neuro-affirming trained which means they understand and will not shame you for asking questions that you think are ‘silly’ or for finding something tricky. If you would like to stim during your session this is also welcomed and you can talk to your therapist about anything else you need to help you be in the therapy space.
5. PREPARING FOR AN ONLINE THERAPY SESSION
We recommend that you spend a little time making the space comfortable. Get a glass or water and box of tissues ready. If you have the luxury of space then try to set your laptop up so you can sit on a comfy chair. Ensure the room is private so you can talk freely, and quiet (don’t put the washing machine on just as you start!).
Where possible we recommend building buffer time before and after the session of at least 15 minutes so you can set your self up for attending and have time afterwards for any emotions or insights that have arisen.
6. MAKING A CANCELLATION
We understand that life happens and that sometimes you will need to make a cancellation. In this situation please email your individual therapist with as much notice as possible. There is no charge for sessions cancelled 48 hours before the time of your session.
Charges for a cancelled or missed session are not a punishment – the charge occurs because the time cannot be filled by another client when there is a short-notice and often the therapist will have spent time preparing for the session already
7. BETWEEN SESSION CONTACT
Emailing your therapist between sessions is allowed but please limit the content of these to questions about logistics e.g. clarifying the homework or session time.
Long emails with clinical information may need to be read together during session time.
If you feel unhappy with any aspects of our service, or are simply feeling as though your therapy feels stuck or like it’s focusing on the wrong area, the best starting place is to have that conversation with your therapist. These conversations, whilst tricky to initiate are an important part of therapy – they will help you and your therapist to become aligned and therapists are trained to listen and respond to challenges with the models they use.
If you have tried this and feel there is an unresolved issue you are also welcome to speak to our management team by emailing Claire Plumbly at hello@plum-psychology.com for extra support.
At the end of therapy you are given an anonymous feedback form where you can also let us know the aspects that you enjoyed and constructive feedback. We take all feedback seriously and will look into any action points or extra training required for this.
9. ENDING THERAPY
When you and your therapist agree to bring therapy to an end you will be sent the mood questionnaires again to check-in. They will plan an ending-session which will give you both an opportunity to summarise the content of sessions and make an onwards plan for your progress.
Once you’ve had your last session our admin team will send you an email to thank you for using Plum Psychology and a link to our anonymous feedback form. This is sent at the end of the month of your final session.
10. WHERE TO FIND FURTHER ANSWERS
This is a quick-reference guide to therapy with Plum Psychology.
When you register with our service we will send you our Therapy Agreement which includes the finer details of all of this and more.
