Frequently Asked Questions

Your free consultation is an opportunity for us to have a brief telephone chat about your current situation, and for us both to determine whether CBT and/or EMDR is appropriate for you. In some cases, we may agree that either CBT/EMDR, or both, are not the most suitable treatments for you. We will discuss the reasons why and I will try and suggest other services or treatments that may be more suitable.

The consultation is also a chance for you to see whether I am the right therapist for you. 

No absolutely not. After your consultation, there may be lots of reasons why you decide not to go ahead. It may be that you don't feel I am the right therapist to help you, it may not feel like the right time for you to have therapy, or it could be that CBT and/or EMDR doesn't feel quite right. 

You may want to have a consultation with another therapist, and this is OK! You are about to invest in yourself and you want to ensure you have found someone who you click with, that gets you and that makes you feel hopeful that they can help you. 

Each session after your free consultation costs £115. 

Payments must be made via BACS 48 hours before each session to secure your slot. If payment is not made prior to the session, I cannot confirm the slot for you. 

When you book your session, I will send you my account details. 

I am a registered Psychotherapist with AXA and Nuffield Health, so if your insurance is provided by them, you can contact them, asking whether your treatment with me will be covered. 

If they agree, they will need to provide you with an authorisation code and your membership/policy number. You can then give the details to me as evidence that your treatment is authorised and covered. 

I will invoice your insurance company, however you are liable to pay any excess charges. 

Please note, if for whatever reason your insurance company do not pay the invoices that I submit for your sessions, you will be liable to pay the total fee. 

Sessions last up to an hour and at the beginning of each session, we will make a plan together of what feels the most important thing for us to work on/talk about. 

This may be a recent situation that you found difficult, or a new helpful coping strategy that you have been practicing outside of your sessions. 

At the end of each session, we typically review how the session has gone, and plan a homework task(s) for you to work on between sessions. Homework is based on practicing CBT skills and strategies to improve how you feel. 

EMDR is a psychological therapy that is an internationally recognised treatment for trauma, as well as other psychological difficulties, such as anxiety disorders and depression.

EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (eye movements or tapping) to help the brain and body process difficult past experiences that are still affecting you in the here and now. EMDR helps the brains natural healing process to kick start after experiencing adverse life events.

Find out more about EMDR by reading my blog or listen to my podcast episode on EMDR here.

Once we have agreed that EMDR is suitable, our sessions will start by helping you learn strategies to help you to regulate your feelings both in and outside of sessions. This can take from one session to many months of sessions, depending on how many adverse experiences you have been through. 

Once we both agree you have enough resources to self-soothe when emotionally distressed, we will then start the reprocessing by choosing a memory to work on. Bilateral stimulation is used to help your brain to process the material that is stuck (unprocessed). This phase of treatment is complete when you no longer feel physically distressed when you connect with the distressing memory. 

Learn more about EMDR Therapy here.

Appointments start off weekly, which helps us to develop a trusting therapeutic relationship, to explore your situation in more detail and to learn strategies to improve how you feel. 

If you are having CBT, as your treatment progresses and you start to understand yourself and how to use CBT more, we can increase the time between your appointments. We can discuss this further and make a plan that works for you once you have started working with me.  

For EMDR sessions, I wouldn't recommend having longer than a week in between sessions due to the nature of the therapy and what it may bring up for you between sessions. 

If you cancel a session in advance, we can re-arrange this, however short-term cancellations (i.e. less than 48 hours before your appointment time) will be charged at the full session rate (£115). The reason for this is appointments cannot be rebooked at such short notice. We cannot book a new appointment in until the missed appointment has been paid for.

Yes of course - you can stop treatment at any time, for any reason. 

For therapy to be effective, appointments need to be attended regularly and effort is required to make the best use of our sessions. If there is anything going on for you that may hinder this, we can discuss this together. 

It is possible to contact me between sessions however please be aware that I am not able to respond immediately:

Email: enquiries@laurahanstherapy.co.uk

Mobile: 07515 545181

Please also be aware, I am not a crisis service so if you find yourself really struggling to cope, the best support for you at this time would be the Samaritans on 116 123, you can call NHS 111, call your GP, or attend your local A&E department. 

If you are pregnant or postnatal, you can contact PANDAS UK on 0808 1961 776 for advice and emotional support.  

I offer both online and face to face appointments, so you can chose which method of delivery feels right for you.

If online, your appointments would be either over the telephone or over Microsoft Teams (or a mixture of both), whichever feels more suitable for you. There is lots of evidence that online therapy can be just as effective as face-to-face therapy. 

I've written a blog on this if you wanted to read more, click here. 

If you opt to come and see me in person, I have a brand-new, beautiful garden office where your appointments will be held. This is located in Milton Keynes, MK3. My full address will be provided to you upon booking your appointment. 

Please be aware, I do not have toileting facilities and I also don't have wheelchair access. 

CBT is great if you want to make sense of what may be driving your current symptoms of anxiety and/or low mood and learn practical ways to work through them. 

If you are looking to play an active role in your therapy, with us both putting our heads together to think about how we can help you move forward, then CBT is right for you. 

EMDR is suitable if you think your current symptoms may be linked back to a previous life experience(s). You may not be consciously aware of what may have triggered your current symptoms, so I would recommend having an assessment with me so we can explore this further. 

If you're still not sure, get in touch and I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have. You can book your FREE, no obligation consultation with me here.