What To Expect
To ensure you get MORE out of your counselling experience, we have provided some information to assist you in planning, booking and arriving for your first appointment.
What We Do:
Alyson Jones & Associates provides counselling services to our clients, sometimes referred to as “therapy”. We also have a practitioner who conducts neuropsychological assessments.
Counselling provides an opportunity for you to explore patterns of behaviour, relationships, feelings and thoughts standing in the way of your desired future. The goal of successful counselling is to achieve insights and awareness, learn new skills and tools, and develop strategies for creating new patterns of behaviour and relationships. Counselling can also be a source of support during crisis or life transitions and helps to reduce the impact of past trauma.
Our approach at Alyson Jones & Associates is research-based and outcome-focused. This means that our work is about helping people resolve their issues and create the changes they want, using proven theories and tested techniques.
Therapist and Client Roles:
Your therapist is a resource to you. He/she can work with you as an individual, with couples, separated parents, children, and families as a whole. People of all ages in all situations can benefit from counselling as we are all capable of creating positive change in our lives in pursuit of our highest values, dreams and relationships.
The prospect of seeking counselling can be disconcerting but we want to reassure you that the experience can be very inspiring and the outcomes life changing. To get the most out of counselling, you may need to be prepared to examine difficult topics and experiences in your life, to experience strong emotions, and engage in challenging work when trying out new behaviours and approaches to creating change. Some therapeutic methods can have impact almost immediately, although some issues may take longer.
Booking Your First Appointment:
When you are ready to take the step of finding a therapist, please call our reception to get assistance selecting the most suitable counsellor for you, based on your situation, interests and the therapist’s qualifications and approach. If you have made your own selection based on a referral or the information on our website, you can move ahead and click the “Book Now” button.
NOTE: You do not need a referral from a doctor or other professional to see a counsellor or psychologist.
Once a therapist has been chosen, you can book your first appointment by either calling our office or booking online now.
NOTE: When the person attending counselling is a minor, the first appointment should be booked for the parent to see the therapist. Also, both parents/legal guardians will need to sign consents for counselling for the minor before the minor’s first appointment.
Appointment Arrival:
Before seeing a counsellor for the first time, you will need to complete some intake forms that admin will email to your or you can fill them out in person before your session if you are 19 years or older.
There are bathroom facilities inside of the main building for our clients to access.
Once your therapist is ready to begin your session, he or she will collect you from the waiting area and show you to one of our comfortable and quiet rooms. The session will be approximately 50 minutes long.
In this first session, you can provide any details about your situation and why you have chosen to attend counselling. Confidentiality and consent to counselling will be discussed with you in order to ensure you understand the counselling process and boundaries. Your therapist will work with you to assess where to begin and how often you should attend sessions.
Afterwards, you can book your next session with your therapist or with our front desk admin or book online.
If you have any questions about beginning counselling, please call us and our Front Desk staff will be happy to assist you.