What happens in a first session

Booking at PHC is an enquiry rather than a self-service calendar, and it is worth knowing that in advance so the sequence does not surprise you.

You send us six things: the name of the person who will attend, their age, what is going on in your own words, whether you would prefer a male or female psychologist, whether you want to come in or meet online, and whether the person attending is a minor or elderly. We come back to you by phone or on WhatsApp with a psychologist, a time and a fee. If you agree to all three, you pay a booking payment of half the fee at least 24 hours before the appointment, in cash or by bank transfer, and the slot is held at that point. The rest is paid after the session.

The booking payment is half the fee and is due at least 24 hours before the appointment, because a real appointment is standing empty until it arrives. If it does not arrive the time is not held — you will not have paid anything, so there is nothing to refund, and we will look for another time.

The "what is going on" line is the one people agonise over. It does not need to be well written or complete. "My son is not coping at school" or "I have not felt right since March" is enough to match you to the right person.

A first session is a conversation, not a procedure. It runs to 50 minutes, and if it goes one to five minutes over you are not charged for that.

Most of it is you talking and a psychologist listening, asking, and occasionally writing something down. They will want to understand what has been happening, roughly how long it has been going on, what it is affecting — sleep, work, study, appetite, relationships — and what you have already tried. They will usually ask about your general health and about any medication you are taking, because both change the picture. They may ask what you are hoping for.

What they are doing while you talk is forming a view of what is actually going on, which is a different job from beginning to treat it. It is why PHC is described as an assessment-first practice and why nothing is administered in that first hour.

Towards the end, the psychologist will tell you what they think and what they suggest: whether further assessment is warranted and which kind, which approach they would recommend, roughly how the work would be structured, or that what you need is somebody else. That last one is a real outcome of a first session, not a failure of it.

All three happen, often, and none of them is a problem.

People cry in first sessions and nobody minds. People arrive having rehearsed an explanation and find it will not come out; if that happens, the psychologist will ask smaller questions until it does. People get to the door and want to leave, and if you do want to leave, you can.

If you finish the session and do not want to come back, you do not have to explain yourself. If you want to come back but with somebody else, tell us — you can change psychologist without justifying it at length, and nobody here takes it personally.