QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR THERAPIST

You can ask your therapist questions about your treatment or their approach at any point before you start therapy, during it, or when you end.

When starting a talking treatment, you may want to ask about:

• your therapist’s qualifications
• the type of therapy they practice or the treatment they have offered you
• how long the therapy will last and its structure
• if there is any cost involved
• their policy on confidentiality

Your therapist should tell you about the talking treatment they are offering you – this is called informed consent. You should expect to be told about:

• what the treatment involves
• the benefits and risks involved
• any alternatives
• what will happen if the treatment doesn’t go ahead.

Your therapist should also work with you to develop an agreement or ‘contract’ of how you would both like the sessions to work. This may include agreeing about:

• Frequency of sessions – when they will take place and for how long.
• Payment – if you’re paying for therapy, you may agree how you can pay, how much and when.
• Confidentiality and consent – what rules they have about consent and confidentiality, and when the therapist may need to break confidentiality.

The partnership between you and your therapist is known as the therapeutic alliance. This alliance consists of:-

• An interpersonal connection
• A mutual agreement of the goals of therapy
• A mutual agreement of how to achieve the goals of therapy.