We offer an assessment service which does this matching. This is a consultation process that helps match individuals with the most suitable therapist based on their specific needs, preferences, and treatment goals. During this assessment service, a trained professional evaluates the client's concerns, therapy history, communication style preferences, and any specific requirements (such as cultural background or specialised expertise) to provide personalised therapist recommendations and referrals.

 

Please get in touch with me using my phone number, email, or the form on the contact page if you're interested in this opportunity.

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Openness Relating To The 'Client & Therapist Relationship':​

For the sake of transparency, I feel it is good to relay to clients seeking therapy a couple of 'home truths' relating to how therapists function, and there is more on this on the Therapy Rooms page. Referring to challenges we face and how they are managed is potentially risky, but the aim is to improve trust, not damage it. 

 

The client/therapist relationship is core to both sides. The therapeutic relationship serves as the foundation for healing, built on trust, empathy, and unconditional positive regard between client and therapist. When clients feel genuinely understood and accepted without judgment, they become more willing to explore vulnerable emotions and develop new insights about themselves.

How the client & therapist relationship works:
For many of you, the relationship is simply a vehicle of connection that you and the therapist travel in. Like a vehicle, it takes you to your destination, but you don't need to talk explicitly about the car you're driving in for the therapy to be effective. 

For those of you who have a history of tempestuous relationships, you may experience your therapist as 'no good'. You may feel they have personal shortcomings or feel certain that they have let you down. These experiences usually come after the relational bond has had time to grow. They are a part of the process and not objectively "real". 

Confusingly, you may be naturally attuned in a way that does pick up on actual shortcomings of the therapist's personality. Even after therapists have had plenty of therapy for themselves, they will not be perfect. In fact, therapy doesn't work if therapists are perfect! Like a good parent, we are best at helping when we are 'good enough'. If we were 100% attuned to clients, there would be a machine-like quality of perfection, which would be self-defeating.

One writer of theory goes so far as to say "the therapist is sh#t". Objectively, inherently sh#t! This radical position becomes a prompt for therapists to get off our high horse, let go of theory altogether, and trust our instincts. But this only works for therapists if we've already absorbed theory over time. It works so we can loosen up, let go of our attachment to fixed ideas, and achieve the necessary flexibility of movement that clients need in order to grow. 

 

Therapists' fragility: 

Fortunately, when therapists are tired or stressed by events in their own lives, there is a 'therapeutic frame' holding the process. An invisible structure that acts as a brace, which allows the client's work to progress even if your therapist is having an off day. You may ask how or why this works. I think the answer is no one knows, although there are many interesting theories about it. 

 

Suffice to say, they involve unseen energies. I can only say it holds true, though - time and again, clients progress or have breakthroughs when I am at my worst, and experienced colleagues report the same!

Incompetence and bad therapy:
Good supervision, along with a governing training body, plus the therapist's internalised sense of ethics, is meant to protect you from bad practice. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Some therapists are simply not suited to the job. They have the will but not the way. I sat on a complaints panel for some years, hearing about therapists who made serious mistakes, and sadly, there are those who are unable to learn from them. Thankfully, the interview process therapists have gone through here acts as a filter to protect clients from bad practice. I can sleep easily knowing I trust all the work that is going on in the building.

 

So, bad feelings towards the therapist are simply a phase clients go through. This then ultimately results in deeper, more stable relationships for clients in their lives. 

It's worth noting that good therapists are better with certain personality client-types, or with certain issues, and weaker at others. However, a fundamentally competent therapist will get you where you want to go, even if you're not their 'strong suit'. Matching therapist to client is still important, but this matching is based as much on intuition as it is in a concrete personality typing of client and therapist. 

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It's equally important for clients to trust their instincts about feeling heard and comfortable, as the therapeutic relationship should feel collaborative and safe from the very first session. ​

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